Priceline Retrenches

In a move to redefine Priceline.com as a cool, customer-focused enterprise, the client has rolled out the first commercial of a new national campaign, and conspicuously absent from the 30-second spot is familiar pitchman William Shatner.

With its stock price plummeting, the Norwalk, Conn., Internet company has eschewed Shatner’s off-key warbling, which graced ads all last year, to adopt a “cool, cutting-edge” stance, emulating approaches from clothing retailers Gap and Old Navy, sources said. Michael McCadden, chief marketing officer of Priceline, was hired last year from Gap Inc.