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By Times Staff Writer
Published January 3, 2008

Atlanta airport soars above all others again

For the third year in a row, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has retained its title as the nation's busiest airport in terms of flights, according to preliminary Federal Aviation Administration data released Wednesday. The Atlanta airport logged 994,466 flights in 2007, up 1.8 percent from 976,447 flights in 2006, the FAA. Flights include takeoffs and landings. Its rival, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, was listed second busiest, with 935,000 flights in 2007. That number was down 2.4 percent from the 958,643 flights it had in 2006, the FAA said. Atlanta and Chicago have run neck-and-neck in recent years to claim the title of the nation's - and therefore, the world's - busiest airport. Atlanta already claimed to be the world's busiest airport in terms of passengers.

Toyota claim to top Scion of the times

Toyota Motor Corp.'s namesake division may declare itself the No. 1 auto brand in the United States for 2007. General Motors Corp.'s Chevrolet won't agree. The dispute pivots on one question: How should sales of Toyota's Scion cars be tallied? At stake are bragging rights that go with the top-selling line of autos in the United States. Toyota's count includes Scion, cars that bear no Toyota badges and are marketed separately. By that measure, the Japanese automaker's lead through November sets the stage for a full-year win. Leave Scion out, and Chevy will likely retake the title when results are released today. Overtaking Chevrolet, the largest of GM's seven U.S. brands, would mark another triumph for Toyota, which passed Ford Motor Co. this year to become the No. 2 seller of autos in the United States and is threatening to pass GM in global sales.

Jackson ad chief Dusenberry dies

Advertising executive Philip B. Dusenberry, 71, who oversaw the Pepsi television commercial in which Michael Jackson's hair caught fire and who helped coin some of the industry's best-known slogans, died of lung cancer Saturday at his Manhattan home, his advertising firm, BBDO, said. Mr. Dusenberry was named one of the Top 100 Advertising People of the past century by Advertising Age. At BBDO he helped create the Pepsi theme line "The choice of a new generation" and the General Electric slogan "We bring good things to life." In 1984, while Jackson was taping a Pepsi ad, special effects that were supposed to create smoke blew up, burning the singer's hair and scalp. Jackson had to be taken to a hospital. Mr. Dusenberry, a former chairman of BBDO North America, retired in 2002.

Raise your glass to chief beer officer

A bid by the Four Points hotel chain, a division of Sheraton, to recruit a part-time CBO (chief beer officer) for its new worldwide beer program attracted more than 7,000 applications from more than 30 countries - the most the hotel chain has received for a job opening. The job involves visiting breweries, beer festivals and bars, and selecting beers for hotel menus. The winning candidate: a 27-year-old brewery manager from Arizona who reportedly decorates his home with beer barrels.

[Last modified January 2, 2008, 23:24:38]