FOX Cans Wanda Sykes

After moving "Wanda at Large" to the Friday night death slot, FOX has canned the Wanda Sykes series after viewership plummeted to just 3.8 million viewers. she's funny but not enough to carry a sitcom.

BizNetTravel is the Place to Go When You Want to Go Somewhere

If you like to travel or to just read about travel, you might want to check out the BizNetTravel Blog. It's a weblog that covers travel related news and offers valuable tips for travelers such as the best way to get through airport security, the best methods of travel to a given location and reviews of the great places to see if you do travel. If this sounds like an ad, you are right. Although no money changed hands here, I write for that weblog too so pardon, for a moment, my self promotional interest here. Advertising aside, it really is a great site to get travel tips on a daily basis. And yes, there is a travel agency attached to this weblog and yes, I do want you all to book your travel through this agency.

End of self-flatulation.

Paris Hilton's 'The Simple Life' May Get Sequel

From sex tape star to TV star, Paris Hilton is on a role. FOX execs are so pleased with the popularity of "The Simple Life" they are considering a sequel. Viewership of the second episode reached 13.3 million, 200,000 more than the premiere. For those that love the show, just five episodes remain. Waiting for the sequel will be like waiting for The Sopranos to return to HBO.

Lieberman Tells Fast Food Marketers to Stop Making Kids Fat

Senator Joe Leiberman, crusader against all things fun (OK, bad), is taking on the fast food companies now and telling them to stop making kids fat by marketing junk food to them. Spouting platitudes from the pulpit, Liberman said, "Parents today are being forced to contend with a new threat; big food companies targeting junk food at children. And that's literally feeding an epidemic of obesity that our top public health experts contend is the biggest health threat out there today. It's time to stand up to the companies marketing to children products that can be harmful to their health."

No mention was made by Lieberman about parents actually taking responsibility for their children's eating habits or moderating the time they sit on their fat assess playing video games, IMing friends and watching TV.

Pre-Movie Ads Get Even Longer

Check out this week's Mediapost Out to Launch column by Amy Coor and find out what Regal Entertainment is doing to make your pre-movie experience even more painful than it already is. The company has developed a long form piece of advertainment that will replace the usual pre-movie slide show (a good thing) with a 20 minute show with entertainment from NBC, TBS, Vivendi and Convex as well as made for cinema ads (hopefully a good thing). The show, called "The 2wenty" , features a superhero who's really a projectionist but as superhero can do really cool things with light. (snooze)

Other new campaigns this week include Kmart for Martha Stewart, a new campaign from Shopping.com, a logo-mercial from Talbots and a campaign from Cheerios illustrating how the cereal can help children move from soft to solid food.

The Brand Exchange Dance Makes Brands Bland

Acknowledging all originals ideas are taken, brands are now turing to other brands to help there own brands. The Pillsbury doughboy is now appearing in Sprint commercials. The Maytag repairman was in a GM commercial last year and the Taco Bell dog has been in Geico ads. Sure, this is temporarily funny but as Leo Burnett's Chief Creative Officer Cheryl Berman asks, "Am I supposed to make a phone call or am I supposed to buy some biscuits?", it's a risky move for brands.

Marketers have been messing brands and their icons for the past ten to fifteen years that trying to figure out what the original brand stands for is not as easy as it once was. This brand dance approach to advertising is just another lame attempt at being creative at the long term expense of a brands worth and meaning to the consumer.

Pinch a Pillsbury Loaf and Other Weird Billboards

Dribbleglass has put a fine collection of spoof billboards together which really puts the truth back in advertising. View more here.

Life Ticks But Girls Should Have Taken the Timex Lick Instead

This Canadian Timex commercial, one of the first to use the horrible new 'Life is Ticking' tagline, is humorous in its own right but falls flat because of the tagline. Just imagine how much better this spot would be if it made a play on the girls taking an ass licking as the reason they keep ticking in the bimbo-like manner in which they do.

Babylon 5 to Return to Television

For all the Sci-Fi fans out there, a continuation of cult favorite Babylon 5 appears to be in development and may air as soon as next year according to creator and producer J. Michael Straczynski.

"On the B5 front, there has been something of rather substantial proportion that's finally gone from talk to money, such that I'm now working frantically to meet some deadlines,' Straczynski posted on his web site's message board. 'But there's nothing I can say about this until after January 15th, probably closer to the end of that month."

Bigger Breasts Apparently Better For Brand

Following the breast augmentation craze in humans, Irish airline Ryanair has decided it needs a bigger bra size as well. Ryanair CEO Mike O'Leary said the current flying angel logo was too flat chested and ordered the breast enhancement for the entire line of its 737-800 fleet. Not missing a beat, a Ryanair spokesman said, "We decided to give our customers a more uplifting experience. We think she is rather aerodynamic."