Tablets, notebooks and laptops, TV's, smartphones and videogame consoles are the most-desired gifts this holiday season, per trade group The Consumer Electronics Association. The gifts that people will actually get? Headphones or earbuds. The CEA projects that we will spend $33.76 billion on electronics this year. The group also says people will do their shopping in November or December.

New Cadillac chief Johan de Nysschen went to Facebook to criticize critics: "Mary Barra and Dan Ammann have been very explicit in their instructions: restore Cadillac to the pinnacle of global premium brands, not in sales but in aspirational brand character." And, on setting up Cadillac as a separate business unit: "Emails from GM [retirees] [suggest] that is the dumbest idea since the Cimmaron. I quietly wonder if any of them had a hand in creating that masterful monument to product substance." More choice words at the jump.

Whole Foods Market has lowered pricing in the perishable sections of its five Austin, TX, stores as part of an effort to improve its value image. They said it could take up to two years to change consumer perceptions if and when the program is rolled out chainwide. According to Kate Wendt, senior analyst with Wells Fargo Securities, "Price is still a significant barrier in the way people look at Whole Foods, and it will take awhile to change the 'Whole Paycheck' perception the company has."

To boost appeal Millennials, Macy's is expanding a program tested in Cincinnati that enables in-store shoppers to browse items not on shelves and skip the checkout. The in-store touchscreens confirm if an item is in the store - or at any store nearby or across the country. Also being expanded are local "look book" terminals, touchscreen catalogs that replace some mannequins and show the shopper how some clothes look paired with other garments or accessories.

Chivas Regal has launched a campaign featuring "12 Years A Slave" star Chiwetel Ejiofor, wherein social-media entrepreneurs can submit ideas. It dangles a trip to Silicon Valley and funding for 20 winners. "Win The Right Way", via Havas Worldwide London and AnalogFolk, also has a U.S. market film starring Oscar Isaac of the Coen Brothers' film "Inside Llewyn Davis."

Besides the FCC and the Anti Trust Division of the Department of Justice, the Consumers Union is all over the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger. The advocacy arm of Consumer Reports is asking the DoJ to watch out for the interests of consumers, and block the merger. At the jump, a deeper look at who's taking a hard look and when.

Bryan Melmed, VP of insights services at Exponential, speaking at Advertising Week, said marketers are stereotyping Millennials. The firm, looking at data from 4 million Millennial "poster children," developed three bucket influences on the demo: the economy, globalization and social media. Within each are several subgroups, an effort to get beyond generalizations.

Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer met with 500 advertising and agency executives, representing 350 brands during the second quarter this year. At an Advertising Week event she kept working the pitch: Yahoo, she said, is a premium publisher, media platform, social channel, native and video ad force, and a quality brand making it worth the media investment.

A viral video for Pepsi Max, which has grabbed 17 million views on YouTube has also grabbed a Clio. Because it's brilliant, even if it does include Ray Wert. The effort, via Marina del Rey, CA-based Davie Brown Entertainment,  Jeff Gordon: Test Drive 2  grabbed the statue in the branded entertainment category. Creative Artists Agency of Los Angeles and Furlined of Santa Monica also won Clios this year for branded entertainment videos.

Heineken, in 2010, set a target to reach an innovation rate of 6% by 2020. To get things going the company developed an innovation program two years back. The program, Innovators Brewhouse, was a call for creative. Now Heineken is back with a call to "tech, mobile and digital disruptors' to help "create an ecosystem of services and digital tools" by launching Frontier, an accelerator to foster innovation around the brand's product and customer experience.