With the Car Industry in Trouble, Nissan Rolls Out the Mobile Device

New York Times, April 7, 2009 — FORGET about thinking outside the box — or inside it, for that matter. Nissan Motor is betting an estimated $20 million during the worst automotive sales slump in a generation that a spirited campaign can get drivers to forgo the box for the cube.

Actually, it is the Cube, as in the Nissan Cube, a cute, smallish car scheduled to go on sale on May 5. And scratch the word “car,” for the campaign to introduce the Cube in the United States, which begins on Monday, takes a big step, er, outside the box by calling it a “mobile device.”

Frito-Lay Tries to Enter the Minds (and Lunch Bags) of Women

New York Times, February 25, 2009 — SORRY, men: Baked Lay’s are no longer meant for you.

Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, is overhauling all of its calorie-conscious snacks to make them appeal to women, including the baked versions of Lay’s, Fritos, Ruffles, Doritos, Cheetos and Tostitos; Smartfood; Flat Earth; and its 100-calorie packages of snacks.

A Fashionable Lift for the Everywoman

New York Times, February 17, 2009 — AT Liz Claiborne, the apparel company that is struggling to endure a shutdown in consumer spending, executives have their own stimulus plan.

Call it Isaac Mizrahi.

Mr. Mizrahi — whose fashions for Target were so popular he helped the discount chain become synonymous with chic design — was poached by Liz Claiborne last year to overhaul its aging brand.

At McDonald’s, the Happiest Meal Is Hot Profits

New York Times, January 11, 2009 — It wasn’t too long ago that McDonald’s, vilified as making people fat, was written off as irrelevant. Now, six years into a rebound spawned by more appealing food and a less aggressive expansion, McDonald’s seems to have won over some of its most hardened skeptics.