In the boom decades after World War II, it was P&G more than any other company that put the mass in marketing, relying on TV commercials and print ads to flog its standardized wares from coast to coast. Along with Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Gene...

This should be a triumphant moment for Detroit executive Thomas A. Gottschalk. As the executive vice president for law and public policy at General Motors Corp., he has devoted his long career to battling plaintiffs' lawyers. So you might th...