Advertising's New & Notable: Girl Scouts go commercial

— -- Faced with a recruiting slump — down 1% to 2% a year for the last decade — Girl Scouts of the USA has hired its first-ever chief marketing officer. Ex-Ogilvy & Mather ad executive Laurel Richie is charged with giving the 96-year-old organization an image makeover. Among plans: ads and more online marketing.

Lights out.

For "Earth Hour," marketers worldwide turned off lights Saturday from 8 to 9 p.m. local time. The idea was hatched last year by agency Leo Burnett in Sydney for the World Wildlife Fund and 2.2 million Sydney businesses and homes took part. (It won Burnett a Titanium Lion at the 2007 Cannes ad festival.)

This year, Earth Hour went global, adding about 25 cities. Marketers including Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Walgreens went dark at select locations — including Coke's Times Square billboard in Manhattan.

The white stuff.

The California Milk Processor Board of "Got Milk?" fame wants teens, who've been gulping less milk and more energy and soft drinks. It's created a MySpace page for faux rock star White Gold, who plays a clear guitar filled with milk (myspace.com/whitegoldiswhitegold). In April, he'll be in TV ads with sexy backup singers The Calcium Twins.

The board wants "to reach teens in their natural environment, the Internet, before losing (them) forever," executive director Steve James says. "We're hoping people will use the words milk and cool in the same sentence."

Gimme a "G"!

Gucci is the world's most-desired luxury brand, according to a survey of 25,000 consumers in 48 countries by The Nielsen Co. One of five said that if money were no object, they'd go for the "G" logo over any other luxury brand. Chanel and Calvin Klein tied for second.

Stuck on what?

Justix hopes it's one of its 13 new meals-on-a-stick, from chicken to salmon to tofu. With locations in Atlanta and Lexington, Ky., Justix sells sticky meals for $6.25 to $7.75, with brown rice and a side. Co-founder Cindy Lupi says some foods have proved tough to master. Broccoli is one of her best-selling sides, but she can't figure out a simple way to ram it onto the bamboo skewers.