Not only did Peter Jennings show up late for work on the eve of the war but the network also left its affiliates with several minutes of nothing but a black screen to show. Not too good if you are trying to get people to watch your network. And with war going on, who's going to sit around staring at a black screen before they change to another network. Not good. [via NYT]
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Aussie Paul Hogan is out and Tour De France champion Lance Armstrong is in. The new tagline is "Subaru: Driven By What's Inside". Media will include TV, radio, print, and outdoor.
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Advertising watchdog, BadAds, reports on Texas possibly banning outdoor billboards. If this happens, Texas would join a small list of states that have already done so: Vermont, Maine, Hawaii, and Alaska.
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Just how real do we want this to be? Oh wait, this isn't about her Presidential BJ, it's about women dating men whose looks are concealed. How novel. Women getting to now guys based on personality rather than looks. It might be more interesting if the men were forced to date women whose looks were concealed. I don't know though..a man making a dating decision based on personality rather than boobs and butt just doesn't seem likely. Who is going to watch this crap? [via Gawker]
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Us bloggers have many compulsions but one is the urge to check our server logs to see who visits our sites. Today, I came across a site called Veer, a creative shop that has a blog. Today, I notice they have "found" me and offer a very nice description of what I do:
"Why would you passively absorb the ubiquitous inanity known as advertising when you could blog about it? Steve Hall pulls together the questionable, the absurd, the new and the noteworthy found floating around in the commercial media and shares the love over at Adrants. For someone who's in the business, he ain't afraid to pull his punches."
Could not have said it better myself. Thanks.
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Arbitron has dropped telephone interviews as a method of compiling its surveys and has moved to an all-diary approach. Arbitron claims this will provided more detailed and more timely demographic information
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Viacom Inc. said on Thursday its No. 2 executive Mel Karmazin has signed a deal that will keep him with the company through 2006, removing a specter of uncertainty that has weighed on the media conglomerate's stock for more than a year.
Tensions between Karmazin and Sumner Redstone, Viacom's chairman, chief executive and controlling shareholder, had raised the prospect that Karmazin might leave the company, whose holdings include MTV, CBS and Paramount Studios.
While Redstone said he wanted Karmazin to say, he also indicated he wanted to retake some of the daily operating controls Karmazin had as part of his last contract, hammered out when Viacom and CBS merged in 2000. Karmazin, lauded by Wall Street for his focus on profits, had indicated he did not want to give up that control.
The uncertainty over Karmazin's future with the company has pressured Viacom's stock, and many investors had said his exit would further hurt the stock in the near-term.
Both Redstone and Karmazin signed new employment contracts effective May 3, 2003, Viacom said in a statement, with Karmazin's contract running through May 3, 2006. Details of the contracts, including whether Karmazin was forced to give up operational controls, were not immediately available, but Viacom said it would provide further details in a filing with securities regulators.
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Just as the bombs start dropping, the Marines will launch an new ad campaign that will kick off with a new television spot to air tonight. A portion of the ad will contain actual war footage from Afghanistan.
The ad is called "For Country" and is a documentary style ad showing marines training, parachuting, flying, fighting, and driving military vehicles.J. Walter Thompson of Atlanta handles. [via USA Today]
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Good 'ol Business Week is getting face lift. If all goes as planned, the new look could be unveiled this Summer. It's about time if you ask me. The current layout is staid and uninviting.
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