Olivier Francois, Chrysler's brand chief, is bringing back "models wearing metallic minidresses" to automotive marketing, reports David Welch in Bloomberg BusinessWeek (3/15/10). "I am doing here what I know from [home]," says Olivier, whose home is France and claim to fame is Fiat's recent success in Italy. His goal is "to attract a younger, hipper, wealthier customer as Chrysler's traditional buyers age and dwindle in number." To accomplish this, he's not afraid to court some controversy, as well as "generate new heat around the brand's muscle cars."

During the SuperBowl, for example, he ran a "slyly sexist commercial for the Dodge Charger" called "Man's Last Stand." The spot "featured closeups of regular guys saying: 'I will shave. I will carry your lip balm. I will put the seat down." And then the voiceover, as a Charger speeds away adds, "Because I do this, I will drive the car I want to drive." The spot did create buzz, including a great YouTube spoof done from a woman's perspective: "I will put my career on hold to raise your children. I will diet, botox, and wax everything ..." (video)

Whether that kind of buzz translates into sales remains to be seen, obviously. Olivier also says he's on the lookout for cars that "people want to make out in." This would be a switch "for an automaker best known for the Town & Country minivan." And it may not help attract more women to, say, Dodge, whose buyers are three-quarters male -- or soccer moms and dads, for that matter. Industry analyst John Wolkonowicz is among those doubting that what worked in Italy for Fiat will work for Chrysler in America. "Americans don't have that kind of loyalty," he says.

Muscle-car fans would love nothing more than to see Camaros and Mustangs back on the racing circuit but Nascar won't allow it, reports Ben Austen in the Wall Street Journal (3/4/10). "The safety of our competitors and fans is paramount," explains Nascar's Robin Pemberton. Three years ago, Nascar began requiring teams to race a standardized, templated car "in its premier Sprint Cup series. Although these cars are badged as Chevys, Fords or Toyotas," they don't look like anything you can buy, which is a problem.

"Nascar was built on fans becoming loyal to a race car because it looked so much like the car in their driveway. That's lost," explains Steve Waid of Nascar Scene magazine. However, Nascar "recently announced several rule changes for its current season, including some designed to make the car look more like the showroom model." But they still aren't "stock" cars, which Tom Peters, a General Motors design director, thinks is a missed opportunity. "Imagine the possibility of racing these guys," he says. "It could be relevant again."

It would almost certainly sell more cars, as it did years ago when "race fans would watch the 'stock' cars compete on the weekends, then head to the showrooms on the weekdays eager to buy them." It might also foster innovation. Back in the day, innovations "filtered up from racing to production models." Ratings for Nascar's Sprint Cup could use some help, too, having "dropped to 2.8 in 2009 from 3.8 in 2007. But interest remains high for the sport, drawing some "5 to 8 million viewers and 110,000 spectators each week," suggesting a big opportunity.

"Men tend to see shopping as less of an indulgence than women -- which meant they did not cut back as much during the downturn," report Christina Passariello and Ray A. Smith in the Wall Street Journal (2/11/10). An October survey by the American Affluence Research Center says, "Twenty-three percent of male respondents said they hadn't reduced overall spending since the recession started, compared with 14 percent of women." A study by NPD Group meanwhile says that, last year, about "75 percent of men shopped for themselves last year, compared with just 52 percent of men in 1995."

Because more men are shopping for themselves, without women helping them, retailers, are picking up on this, with Hermes, Coach, Ralph Lauren and others opening up boutiques especially for men. Hermes, for instance, has opened Hermes Man, across the street from its flagship women's boutique in New York. Not surprisingly, it features plenty of wood paneling. For the opening, the retailer also offered "an $8,500 baseball glove in a signature Hermes red (image)." Coach's new men's store similarly will feature "leather club seats."

But the main thing is that men have their own stores. "Men don't like to enter a men's and women's store to find their products at the back of the store," says Michele Norsa, ceo of Ferragamo, which is also opening special stores for men. Retailers also see big male opportunities in "emerging markets such as Russia and China," where newly wealthy men tend to spend on themselves before their women. Indeed, in South Korea, sales of men's apparel was up 48 percent between 2004 and 2009, compared with 7 percent for women's" reports Euromonitor International.

It's a rude awakening when the Abercrombie & Fitch billboard goes up on London's legendary Savile Row, reports Nancy deWolf Smith in the Wall Street Journal (2/12/10). The moment is captured in a documentary called "Savile Row" which aired recently on the Sundance Channel. The giant, garish billboard heralds the arrival of an A&F flagship store, and "the irony -- that A&F used to have a nice pedigree as an outfitter of the sporting man" is not lost on the tailors.

They still think of their 'hood as "the tribal home of the gentleman ... a tiny community of craftsmen (who) make the best men's suits in the world." A place where, as the documentary narrator says, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame emerges looking like Justin Timberlake." Maybe that's the problem. But Savile Row, which earns 70 percent of its income from American customers, do indeed have "a record of dressing the world's most glamorous and discerning people." No need for billboards, then.

"We're a household name in the households you want to be known in," says one tailor. Here's hoping, when suits run about $4,000, with those in superfine wool costing upwards of $15,000. But certainly not when the neighborhood is "being invaded by a huge American jeans and T-shirt retailer whose magnetic presence may drive rents up and them out." The Savile tailors must hope the documentary narrator is right when he says, "Labels say you're one of the boys -- but a bespoke suit says, 'You are the man.'"

Reckitt Benckiser is rocking by rolling out "new technological twists on humdrum household products," reports Paul Sonne in the Wall Street Journal (2/11/10). Among these hits are "dispensers that ward off mosquitoes by releasing solution continuously throughout the night and electronic air fresheners that sense when people are in a room and deliver an extra pump of fragrance." Coming up is Finish QuantuMatic, a dishwashing detergent designed for men, "which requires just one pellet package for 12 washes."

Also in the works is a sensor-activated soap dispenser, the Lysol No Touch Hand Soap System (why didn't they just call it the iSoap?). As the name would suggest, it "releases a dollop of soap when it senses a hand underneath." As Reckitt ceo Bart Becht explains, "If you ever cut raw chicken in the kitchen you understand immediately why this is beneficial." The device "comes with soap and costs about $9.99 at Walmart ... Refills cost about $3.50." It is Reckitt's "most complicated innovation" to date, but is the result of a relatively simple approach.

Reckitt focuses "on categories that prove less meaningful to bigger players." It also eschews a big research-and-development organization in favor of "an unusually open appeal to product innovators outside the company ... in part by operating an open website, called IdeaLink, which advertises specific advancements the company is looking for and allows visitors to submit their proposals." This helps Reckitt move quickly, but also keeps it in touch with "what consumers want ... rather than thinking about what would simply be a cool thing."

No truth to the rumor, apparently, that P&G's Gillette is about to roll out the first ever ten-blade razor, reports Ellen Byron in the Wall Street Journal (2/12/10). "It's not about the blade count," says Matthew Wohl, general manager of male new products and shave care at Procter & Gamble. "Men tell us their number-one need is comfort ... They tell us they want less tug and pull, less irritation." Indeed, on average, "men need to pull through 10,000 to 15,000 beard hairs," and use 150 strokes to do so.

But rather than adding more blades, Gillette "is promising several technological advances" when it introduces its new Fusion ProGlide razor, in both manual and battery-powered versions, this June. These include "blade edges so fine they can only be seen at high magnification, a 'snow-plow guard' that prevents hydroplaning and a new ergonomic grip that improves traction." All of this innovation will come at a price, of course -- a pack of four of the manual cartridges will run $16.99, and the battery-powered $17.99.

This represents "a 15 percent premium to regular Fusion blades, which already run about twice the average price in the category." The ProGlide has been under development for several years, and has been tested on 30,000 men, including current and former P&G CEOs Robert McDonald and A.G. Lafley. Gillette currently "holds more than three-quarters of the U.S. market for razors and blades," with its Fusion line bringing in "$1 billion worldwide each year." Stew Traub, a Gillette research director, is mum about any future innovations, saying only, "I will never say we won't add more blades."

When it comes to taking fitness supplements, there seems to be something that separates the boys from the girls, reports Max Roosevelt in the New York Times (1/14/10). A young guy like Alex Feintuch, 20, for instance, has "spent more than $1,000 on fitness supplements" over the past year. Before heading to the gym, he takes a pill called Arimatest, to raise his testosterone levels. "Before, during and after his workout, he drinks "a branch-chain amino acid powder mixed in water to hasten muscle recovery. And he caps his gym visits with a whey powder shake."

Steve Hoffman, a trainer, approves of certain supplements, too. "If you're looking to bust through a plateau, taking five grams of creatine before your workout might help you do that," he says. Steve also likes "products with arginine (an amino acid) or caffeine." He says, "They're awesome for working out -- just be careful." However, Dr. Teri M. McCambridge, a pediatric sports doctor, says most youngsters don't need supplements and "don't know the importance of a recommended dose" anyway. She's also worried that using supplements might lead to harder stuff, "like anabolic steroids and human growth hormone."

Stacey Zimmerman, 25, is similarly wary. "The idea of needing to take a supplement to reach my fitness goals seems to counter the goal itself," she says. Another issue is that the supplements, while widely available, "are also minimally regulated, with a majority going untested by the Food and Drug Administration." Alex Feintuch admits this is a problem, and notes that he's wasted a good sum on ineffective supplements. Gunnar Peterson, a celebrity trainer, thinks that's reason enough to get the F.D.A. involved in regulating supplements. But he does see some pyschological benefit, even if the stuff doesn't actually work. "It's like putting jumper cables on motivation," he says.

"Some people think the word of God should be free," says Steve Bercu, in a New York Times essay by Margo Rabb (12/20/09). Steve's explaining his theory of why the Bible is the most frequently stolen book at BookPeople, his bookstore in Austin, Texas. Steve also finds that staff-recommended books tend to get swiped. "It's so bad lately that I feel like our staff recommendation cards should read: 'BookPeople Bookseller recommends that you steal ___________.'"

At St. Mark's Bookshop in Manhattan's East Village, works of fiction -- by male authors -- tend to go missing: "This library of temptation includes books by Martin Amis, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Raymond Carver, Don DeLillo and Jack Kerouac, among others." Zack Zook, of BookCourt in Brooklyn, suggests this is because most of the shoplifters are young and male. "They think it's an existential rite of passage to steal their homeboy," he says.

Paul Auster, another oft-stolen author, admits he stole books when he was young, but now he's worried about bookstores going under. Others fret that the rise of digital books may exacerbate the problem. "The open-source culture is coming for us," says author Sherman Alexie, who has refused to digitize his work. But, in fact, "just "40 percent of books that are read are paid for, and only 28 percent are purchased new," according to consultant Peter Hildick-Smith of the Codex Group. "The rest are shared, borrowed, given away -- or stolen."

Eric Malka, co-founder of Art of Shaving, thinks it's a mistake "to underestimate the importance of a smooth shave," reports Sean Gregory in Time (1/06/10). He -- and his wife, co-founder Myriam Zaoui -- should know. Fourteen years ago, they sold their BMW for twelve grand and started making shaving cream. "She blended some oils for me to put under my shaving cream so that the razor glided over the skin and didn't grab hair," says Eric. "It worked magic for my skin and was the catalyst for starting the shaving business."

Today, the Art of Shaving has 36 stores across America that look perhaps more like jewelry stores than anything else -- trimmed in wood and displaying fancy razors in glass cases. Prices are pointed accordingly: A "sterling-silver razor, stand and brush" sells for $3,400." If you cheap out go for the nickel-plated brass handle, it's still $175. Five ounces of shaving cream will set you back $22. If you think that sounds wildly out of step with the times, you'd be right -- except that the store's "revenues rose 19 percent during the last quarter of the year."

Not only that, but Procter & Gamble bought the franchise last June for an undisclosed sum (link). This left some observers puzzled: "You kind of wonder what they are doing here," says Linda Bolton Weiser, an analyst, suggesting the company may have lost its way. But another analyst, William Chappel, thinks otherwise: "This is alternative marketing, just another way to promote the Gillette brand," he says, adding, "This isn't a core push into retail." And, as Eric Malka notes, "spending $100 on shaving products becomes very inexpensive once you realize the benefits our products have on your skin."

At the Station Inn bed and breakfast in Cresson, Pa., the accommodations are also the destination, reports Eugene L. Meyer in the New York Times (10/30/09). The accommodations actually are nothing luxurious: "There's no air-conditioning, no television of any kind, no in-room phones. Nor is there a fitness center, a Jacuzzi, a sauna or a pool. The beds are all twins." What there is, though, is, a front porch that sits "150 feet from a major railroad artery." The inn's guests, mostly retired men, just like to sit there and watch the trains go by.

"We're not a regular, typical B-and-B," says Tom Davis, proprietor. Seriously. The building itself is vintage 1866, a former hotel that Tom converted 15 years ago into "a rail fan's dream come true, with the clackety-clack of flange on steel as a soundtrack." The Station Inn (814-886-4757) is located some "75 miles east of Pittsburgh," but guests come from as far away as Germany and Japan, just to monitor dispatchers, take pictures and talk "train trivia for happy hour upon happy hour, far into the night."

After all, there's not much time for sleep with trains rumbling by every 45 minutes or so throughout the night. The inn's seven rooms range in price from $55.50 to $120 a night, with the most luxurious room offering its guest a view of the tracks from bed. "The vibration is music to rail fans, the brute power of it, it's kind of like icing on the cake," says Ken Heil, a guest. All of this has attracted a loyal clientele, with the average guest staying at the Station Inn 11 times. For "rail-fan widows," meanwhile, there's the Logan Valley Mall in nearby Altoona.