Cadillac has moved 25% of its marketing spending to digital platforms from 17% three years ago to build a global presence for its new ATS sedan. Said Don Butler, VP-U.S. marketing for Cadillac, "We're using digital to do things we couldn't do 15 years ago in terms of establishing our place and our voice" abroad. Cadillac and Chevrolet are the two brands GM sees as global.

Citgo Petroleum Corp. has launched a lot of programs this year, including, promotions and offers aimed at helping the brand's marketers and retailers increase customer visits, along with in-store purchases and fuel sales. Many of the new programs and changes to existing ones came about through feedback from its marketers, according to Alan Flagg, general manager of lights oils marketing at Houston-based Citgo. Among them: an enhanced mystery shopper program that introduced new rewards for compliance, and a new microsite -- myCITGOStore.com -- that gives retailers access to information on the mystery shopper program.

A Christian Dior mascara ad featuring Natalie Portman has been banned in the U.K. following a complaint from rival L'Oral. The latter argued to the Advertising Standards Authority that the print ad "misleadingly exaggerated" the likely effects of the product. The glossy magazine campaign showed a picture of Portman with impossibly long eyelashes next to the headline, "Diorshow New Look" and text that read, "Lash-multiplying effect volume and care mascara. ... It delivers spectacular volume-multiplying effect, lash by lash." Parfums Christian Dior said that no members of the public had complained about the ad. But the Advertising Standards Authority banned …

Calvin McDonald at one time was indifferent to Sears and would not shop there. At the time, he was being recruited to be CEO of the retailer's Canada operations. "I think a lot of people saw it as a no-win situation," he said. "I believe the business can be successful." McDonald, an avid triathlete and marathon runner has to repair a retailer whose sales and profits have slid annually since 2006, posting a $60.1-million loss in 2011. Department stores are racing to reinvent themselves. Arch-rival Hudson's Bay Co. this week confirmed its plans to go public soon in a bid …

McDonald's is launching a UK TV ad campaign to promote its latest Tastes of the World menu. The menu returns to McDonald's stores with the Spanish Grande, Australian BBQ Supreme, Chili and Cheese Mexican and Chicken and Chutney Indian burgers. Each limited-edition burger will be available for one week as part of the month-long menu promotion and will be promoted separately ahead if its availability in stores. The ad campaign, created by Leo Burnett, launched Tuesday.

The most likely book readers in the United States are high-school students, college-age adults and people in their 30s, with e-book use highest among 30-somethings, a survey released on Tuesday shows. Reuters reports that 78% of Americans had read at least one book in the previous 12 months, with the rate 83% among those aged between 16 and 29, according to the survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project.

Honda and Ohio State University have opened a $1.3-million Driving Simulation Laboratory aimed specifically at driver distraction issues. It will monitor heart rate, blood pressure, eye movement and stress levels to gauge the psychological and physiological state of the driver in varying conditions. Honda plans to make extensive use of the facility. The lab will allow researchers to study how certain age groups differ in their driving habits. Teenagers and the elderly, for instance, may not pay attention to the road like middle-age people.

Killington, Vt., one of the largest ski resorts in New England, will use 300,000 kilowatt hours of electricity made from manure generated on 13 farms this year to run its K-1 Express Gondola to the top of the resort's namesake 4,241-foot peak, a spokeswoman for the resort says. The manure-generated electricity is distributed through a renewable energy program at Green Mountain Power, the state's largest utility. The "cow power" program now generates five megawatts using manure from 10,000 of the state's 270,000 cattle.

Tesco plans to tighten up capital investment in the U.S. during the second half, with only a handful of new stores planned for the balance of the fiscal year. The company said it expects to operate "just over 200" stores by the end of its fiscal year next February, rather than the 230 it projected at the beginning of the year. The company said 55 of its U.S. stores were "delivering a positive cash contribution" through the first half of the year, compared with 30 at the start of the year last February. "We expect an increased number of stores …

Contributor Michael Wolff writes that the big question with the election is where did the $4 billion that paid for it come from? He says the solution to the corrupting influence of cash isn't to limit it since it will seep like some toxic muck into the process anyway, but to make it cheaper to run campaigns (kind of a version of the "legalize it" argument as a solution to the nefarious drug wars). "Sure, rich men have disproportionate political power and opportunities. But the savvy way to deal with this may not be to try to eliminate the money …