New data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average American household spent $51,442 last year, a 3.5% increase from 2011. Both food-at-home and food-away-from-home spending increased by 2.2% and was 12.8% of household expenditures last year, compared with 13% in 2011. The average household spent $2,678 on food away from home. That is 5.21% of total expenditures, about the same as 2011, when food-away-from-home was 5.27% of spending.

As you know (come on, admit it) porn sites have ads on them, but mostly for items and services within -- shall we say -- the vertical. But food? Is there a connection between food and solipsistic sex? Food-delivery app Eat24 explains how its strategy of advertising on porn sites has paid off. The delivery service has a following, apparently, among porn stars, who perhaps have no time between takes to get pizza (though they may well be playing the pizza delivery boy.) They decided to advertise on adult sites because what mainstream brands will compete with them for a …

Securities analysts say Yum! Brands Inc. and McDonald’s Corp., the two biggest Western brands in China, can't ride the coat tails of China's growth and more salubrious food supplies to grow per-store sales. Indeed, the two QSR giants have actually seen sales slip. One reason Louisville, Ky.-based QSR holding company Yum!, which has 6,000 units in China, and  Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s have seem same-store sales drop since late last year is televised reports of widespread antibiotic use in chickens raised there. China’s economic growth also has slowed from its post-recession highs of 2010, pressuring consumer spending there and weighing …

If it's not too early to talk about Super Bowl advertising, it's not too early to start running holiday ads. Kmart has, in fact, aired its first such ad. The spot touts Kmart's layaway program. It features a gingerbread man sneaking up on a woman working in an office cubicle. A voiceover says: "Don't let the holidays sneak up on you. Shop early with Kmart free layaway… Kmart. Get in, get more Christmas."

Nissan wants the redesigned Nissan Rogue small SUV to grab some share from similar Honda and Ford models. The 2014 Rogue, which is longer and wider than the present model, goes on sale in the U.S. in November, with a starting price of $22,490, Nissan said. “This is a big part of our growth strategy for the Americas,” Scott Shirley, Nissan’s chief marketing manager in North America, told Detroit News.

AB InBev launches a Facebook app allowing online fans in the UK to gift friends with a pint of Stella Artois. The giver shares a voucher that can be redeemed at participating locations.  AB InBev says the tie-up provides an “innovative solution” to the “problem” of using technology to engage with consumers in bars and pubs. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that a 2012 national anti-smoking campaign, "Tips From Former Smokers" got about 1.6 million smokers to attempt to quit, with a total of 200,000 Americans succeeding after the three-month campaign. Researchers estimate 100,000 will likely quit smoking permanently.

Superstar Bruno Mars will be in front of 110 million people on Feb. 2, as PepsiCo has tapped him to be the headliner for the Pepsi Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show. The game will be at MetLife Stadium, home venue for the New York Giants and Jets. Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Prince, The Black Eyed Peas and Madonna are all alumnae.

Auto sales have been down in European, and the Frankfurt auto show is focusing on electric vehicles to get things going again: BMW, Volkswagen and Porsche are among automakers showing hybrid, plug-ins and battery-electric vehicles this week.  Stephanie Brinley, an industry analyst with IHS Automotive, says we can expect such vehicles from a lot of automakers, from the Volkswagen e-Golf to Land Rover’s plug-in diesel version of the Range Rover SUV.

Even though overall consumer spending rose 0.2% in July, Wal-Mart’s sales and outlook slipped. That means American consumers may be driving the recovery forward, but lower-income households are being left behind. "You're seeing a bit of a split economy where that lower income consumer has been under a lot of pressure but the higher end is doing OK," said Joe Feldman, a senior research director at the Telsey Advisory Group.