Sonic Automotive Inc., the country's fourth largets auto dealership group, will take at least six months longer than originally planned to roll its new customer experience program, One Sonic-One Experience, to all of its dealerships. Executives said they are "just being prudent" by slowing down the timetable.

At Forbes' inaugural Under 30 Summit in Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon, Raymond Braun, LGBT marketing lead for Google and YouTube, Todd Hunter of talent agency CAA, Rachel Tipograph formerly of Gap, and Brian Wong, founder of Kiip, talked about how to effectively market to today's consumer. And the answer they kept coming back to was the ability to craft a tale about a brand.

Ford was forced to restate the estimated fuel economy of its C-Max Hybrid twice over the past year. Now the brand's marketers are soft-peddling the mpg numbers, a major drawing point when the company launched the car two years ago, touting it for getting 47 mpg city/47 highway/47 combined. What's left is a message that the C-Max is versatile, filled with technology and fun to drive, a veiled shot at the Toyota Prius, the top-selling hybrid.

Total online Thanksgiving Day sales will top the $1 billion mark this year for the first time ever, increasing year-over at least 23.4%, with most purchases made after 6 p.m., according to BestBlackFriday.com, a website providing information regarding holiday sale pricing, shopping tips and news. "We predict a 19.7% increase in online total sales on Black Friday as we expect the total purchasing figures to rise from $1.198 billion in 2013 to $1.434 billion in 2014," the company said.

Giantmicrobes, the company that makes plush toy microbes, including cute Black Death and Listeria plushies, is pretty much sold out of its adorable Ebola toys. The company has sold out of all three of its Ebola offerings, including the original plush toy as well as the gigantic Ebola Virus and the Ebola Petri Dish selections. The company promotes the toys as "uniquely contagious."

U.S. consumers will spend an estimated $33.8 billion on electronics this holiday season, the highest level since the Consumer Electronics Association began tracking data in 1994. The top sellers, per CES' Holiday Purchase Patterns Study, are tablet computers. Which means Apple, which has introduced new iPads, will benefit.

McDonald's U.S. restaurants will carry the McRib sandwich this year. The limited-time-offered sandwich wouldn't be sold at all 14,000 or so McDonald's U.S. restaurants. But the sandwich hasn't been sold at every McDonald's nationally since 2011, a spokeswoman confirmed on Friday. It's up to local market franchisees to figure out whether to carry the sandwich.

HarperCollins Christian Publishing has hired former Zondervan executive Doug Lockhart to serve as SVP of Bible marketing and outreach. The imprint's Christian lines are Thomas Nelson and Zondervan publishing groups in addition to Olive Tree Bible Software. It also publishes the Bible. As one may have surmised, he reports to a human, but is answerable to The Man.

Michael Millikin, the GM chief counsel many see as being the person behind the mishandling of the automaker's ignition switch fiasco, is retiring early. The company has been hit with a $10 billion class action lawsuit alleging it long concealed a series of safety problems. While GM CEO Mary Barra issued a statement praising the 66-year-old attorney for his "tremendous career," it is likely that Millikin's departure comes as something of a relief. People like Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Maryland Democrat, directly accused Millikin of "incompetence."

Pizza Hut's international outlets are test labs. In Korea, the company has a star-shaped pizza. It has the usual pizza toppings, but the dough "points" of the star are dessert turnovers with cranberries and cream cheese or apples, cinnamon, nuts, and cream cheese. So it has toppings like shrimp, squid, sausage, bacon, and steak in the main area, and dessert orbiting on the outside. In the UAE, it's a crust stuffed with red or green jalapeo peppers, and chili sauce.