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CBS is hoping to zip up a controversy over two ads featuring pantsless people that aired back-to-back during its broadcast of the Super Bowl. Neither CareerBuilder nor Dockers was particularly pleased when CBS ran their Super Bowl commercials, both revolving around people without pants, one right after the other, possibly confusing viewers in the process. After Ad Age reported that CBS rewarded Levi, Strauss & Co.'s Dockers with free ad time, CareerBuilder said it was engaged in discussions with CBS as well. Now, despite the discussions, CareerBuilder says it does not expect to benefit from a similar arrangement, and is frustrated by that outcome.  

PepsiCo is ready to close the book on the difficulties its North American beverage business has encountered in the last year. At its first analyst meeting since 2006, CEO Indra Nooyi said the company hasn't been happy with results in the division and will learn from its mistakes. She also publicly acknowledged the controversies the division has weathered.

Amid steep unemployment, it sometimes seems that half the people who still have jobs are working to figure out whether consumers will continue scrimping even after the economy recovers. A couple of surveys -- one by Ogilvy & Mather Chicago in conjunction with Communispace, the other by Booz & Co. -- add their two cents to the body of data suggesting that Americans will continue to pinch their pennies long into the post-recession era. However, the findings also give reason to think that a lasting era of "frugality" won't be one in which consumers resign themselves to lives of "deprivation."

Even though breakfast traffic has not fully recovered from declines brought on by high unemployment, new research shows that the morning meal is still an important daypart for restaurants. Chicago-based research firm Mintel reported that restaurants added more than 460 new breakfast products to their menus in 2009, more than in the previous two years. However, Mintel also found that consumers are spending less on the morning meal at restaurants. Half of consumers surveyed by Mintel last November said they spent less on restaurant breakfasts in 2009 than in 2008, while only 10 percent said they spent more. Nearly half of respondents said they don't eat breakfast out during the week, at 47 percent, or during the weekend, at 45 percent.