The Washington Opera has selected White & Baldacci to spearhead the company's new branding campaign. The campaign will focus on communications outreach, including advertising and marketing, and corporate sponsorship.

XM Satellite has moved media buying and planning responsibilities to Mullen, Wenham, Mass. Carat North America previously handled the account.

Sun Microsystems has named Starcom Worldwide, a unit of Starcom MediaVest Group, as its lead media agency for global advertising initiatives. The assignment gives Starcom global account management duties over Sun’s media. Starcom will continue to manage the global media assignment it won back in 2002.

Alaska Airlines added Avenue A to its interactive agency roster. Avenue A, a unit of aQuantive, will work in conjunction with sister shop i-Frontier.

StarLink, a unit of Starcom MediaVest Group that services independent creative agencies, formed an alliance to handle media for nonbox, a creative agency based in Portland, OR. Starlink's first assignment for the agency will be to handle national TV buying for Infone.

Kraft Foods, a unit of the Altria Group, named Starcom MediaVest Group’s Tapestry unit to handle multicultural media, effective in January. The Bravo Group, which currently handles Kraft’s multicultural media planning and buying, will continue as Kraft’s multicultural creative agency. SMG, which already is the general media agency of record on Kraft’s $700 million-plus North American media account, also picks up assignments for its IP, Entertainment and Relay units.

Pfizer has tapped Publicis’ Kaplan Thaler Group to handle advertising for its Celebrex account, following a review, the company said today.

WestWayne has been selected by Rivella USA, the number two soft drink producer in Switzerland, to begin re-launching the Swiss product into the United States. The assignment includes advertising, promotions and events. The account will be managed from WestWayne's Tampa office.

Reingold, Inc. recently won a renewable contract worth up to $400,000 each year from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The firm will design publications, outreach materials, marketing collateral and other documents for the Department's Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R). Design tasks will include brochures, conference exhibits and presentations, as well as serial publications and major research reports.

Mediaedge:cia has been appointed to handle the media planning and buying business for fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz in Germany. The account was won after a three-way pitch including incumbent OMD and MediaCom.