Jockey last month launched JKY by Jockey, a line of underwear and undershirts for men, and has debuted a new retail-marketing program in Target stores to reach the younger Target customer. But the brand discovered that it isn't always men who buy underwear, but rather women ages 18 to 34, who make up 48% of the purchases. So Jockey also talked to the female shoppers (thus the images of sexy men on the in-store materials), and then to the men. The company also changed packaging based on research.

When Ron Johnson, former head of retail at Apple, became CEO of J.C. Penney, the Street was optimistic. And with the company's recent quarterly earnings announcement being far worse than expected, Johnson's analysis helped the stock rebound. But there are huge problems, foremost being whether Johnson's redirection and merchandising plans can overcome basic issues of merchandising and consumer perception of the Penney brand.

One of the oldest American family/burger restaurant brands embraces the new fast-casual philosophy tomorrow when Shoney's opens its limited-service prototype, Shoney's On the Go, in Houston. Favorites such as the All-American and Shoney's Double Decker burgers, the Slim Jim sandwich and Country Fried Steak platter are still on the breakfast/lunch/dinner menu at Shoney's On the Go and are available via a drive-thru window.

In a $2.5-billion agreement BP will sell Tesoro Corp. its ARCO retail network across the Southwest and its Carson, Calif., refinery. That includes approximately 800 dealer-operated sites in southern California, Nevada and Arizona, according to Tesoro. The San Antonio-based company will also acquire the ARCO brand and associated registered trademarks, as well as a master franchisee license for the AmPm convenience store brand. As part of the deal, BP will exclusively license the ARCO retail brand rights from Tesoro for northern California, Oregon and Washington and continue to produce transportation fuels at its Cherry Point, Wash., refinery. BP will also …

Honda R&D Americas will engineer and develop the new-generation Acura NSX sports car, the next-generation Civic compact car, and other models, says Erik Berkman, the new president of the vehicle-development subsidiary of Honda Motor Co. His unit will take the lead in a growing list of global vehicle development projects to help the automaker fend off competitive challenges in North America and to hedge against a strong yen.

Google, expanding into content, has agree to purchase Frommer's travel-guide from John Wiley & Sons for, reportedly, around $25 million, as a way to get ad dollars from the travel sector, and provide more tools for people to book travel arrangements. The Frommer's deal follows Google's 2011 acquisition of Zagat Survey.

An inspired rip-off of the Apple mien, Stride gum has created an Apple for Mint. Starting with a billboard in SoHo right near the Apple store, displaying only a date, "08.13.12," and clues seemed to point to Apple. The effort, via the London office of Wieden & Kennedy, includes an ad for Mintacular gum that plays with Apple's product iconography on The Onion and the Stride Facebook page, which has three million followers, and on YouTube.

Pacifico, a Pilsner-style Mexican beer popular among California surfers, is running its first major national advertising campaign as it broadens its distribution across the United States. The one-year, $5 million campaign is aimed at men ages 21 to 34. The effort, via Austin, Tex.-based GSD&M, uses Facebook and a "state of Pacifico" surfer mind-set of the beer's original consumers in the United States.

OPI Products has teamed up with multiple Grammy Award-winning and multiplatinum-selling recording artist Mariah Carey. Carey will be the inspiration for a line of OPI limited-edition nail lacquers that will launch in January.

Many athletes used Twitter to publicize their protest against an International Olympic Committee mandate known as rule 40. The rule says athletes can't advertise for their sponsors during the two weeks in London, unless the company is an official sponsor of the Olympics. Protesting athletes, who are not among the lucky few who score big sponsorship deals, said they would be valued more highly by corporations if their marketing visibility could extend to the Olympic Games themselves. That, in turn, might give more athletes the means to train and compete in their sports.