• by December 3, 2003

ABC'S HOLIDAY BASH WAS FESTIVE, IF A BIT RESTIVE - The Riff has been to more than its fair share of network holiday press events, but was it our imagination or did the folks at ABC's pre-Christmas party last night at New York's Reebok Club look especially distracted? Perhaps it was the CNBC news crew parked outside on Columbus Avenue? Or maybe it was the behind-the-scenes meeting transpiring among high-level ABC and ESPN executives in an adjoining room. Nah, the Riff thinks it was the high-level hijinks taking place with parent Walt Disney Co.'s curmudgeonly board that had the ABC brass on edge. Asked about the CNBC camera truck parked outside, "Maybe they're waiting for Mike [Eisner] to jump out a window," ABC News' Rick Kaplan quipped to the Riff, adding, "They'll be waiting there a long time." Of course, while the ABC execs were mingling with the press and chomping on seared tuna and shrimp satay, the Disney board was busy naming Sybase Inc. chief John Chen to fill one of the seats vacated when Disney's nephew-in-chief Roy Disney stepped down earlier this week, along with trusted ally Stanley Gold over their dissatisfaction with Michael Eisner's reign at the Magic Kingdom. Mainly, the ABC execs were predictably mum on conversation about the board's shenanigans, but they did have a lot to say about the rebounding scatter ad marketplace.

Unlike the fourth quarter, which saw a relative slowdown in demand, the ABC sales team said they were seeing strong demand for first quarter scatter inventory, which was already in short supply coming out of last spring's upfront. And while rates aren't fetching the 20 percent to 30 percent hikes over upfront prices that the scatter market was bearing a year ago, sales chief Mike Shaw told the Riff that ABC is seeing solid double-digit price gains. While some people have already begun handicapping next year's upfront marketplace, the ABC sales team demurred, saying they first had to get through the spring primetime development meetings, which by the way, will be held in New York City again, not on the West Coast, as in the past. The main reason: ad folks still seem leery or cost-conscious of traveling for a network boondoggle. On the subject of the primetime development meetings, the Riff asked if ABC's new development partner, WPP media shop MindShare, would be on the pitching or receiving end of those sessions. "That's way, way down the road," said Shaw, implying it would be some time before the deal bared fruit. Meanwhile, the Riff also learned of another primetime project in development that is sure to get media buyers' engines racing. ESPN ABC Sports sales chief Ed Erhardt told us the next of the sports net's TV pics will be about racing legend Dale Earnhardt, Jr. It's called "Three."

GOODBYE, KARL - Speaking of parties, a few of the ABC sales execs had yet another conflict going on Tuesday night. Several Manhattan gridlocks away, some 100 of the industry's top TV sales and buying execs were feting long-time salesman Karl Keuchenmeister at Morton's steak house. Keuchenmeister most recently was sales chief for Turner's Cartoon Network, but over the years, he was a sales biggie at CBS, Warner Bros. and other places, too. He'll be missed, but we suspect he'll still show up from time to time at his regular booth at O'Caseys.

TRY AND CALCULATE A CPM ON THIS ONE - It's not everyday that you'll hear the Riff trash an aspiring new ad medium, but a press release crossing our desk this week has got the hairs on the back of our neck rising. In what is being billed as the "world first walking, talking advertisement," Web hosting service CI Host paid a 22-year-old Illinois man, Jim Nelson, to tattoo - and we mean the permanent kind - the CI Host logo and the copy "Managed Web Hosting" on the back of his shaved head. Never mind that the buy has been incredibly successful (the company claims 500 customers have already bought its services as a result of seeing Nelson's tattoo,) we think this manner of turning people into ads is a bit debasing. It's one thing for young hip-hoppers to shave a Nike swoosh logo into their heads, it's quite another thing to make it permanently indelible. What's next? Body piercing with Mercedes Benz hood ornaments? Meanwhile, as part of the terms of his deal, Nelson must sport the CI Host ad on his head - and hand out the company's business cards to all that inquire - for five years.

A DAY TO REMEMBER - It's been more than 13 years since John A. Reisenbach was murdered on a Manhattan street, but Madison Avenue has done an incredible job of keeping his name alive. Reisenbach, who was a much beloved advertising sales executive at All American Television at the time of his death, was also the son of legendary Warner Bros. marketing whiz Sandy Reisenbach. In the 13 years since John's death, his murder has not been solved, but it has inspired the John A. Reisenbach Foundation, which promotes criminal justice and civic responsibility in New York City. And on Dec. 8, the day of the 12th annual "Gala for a Better and Safer New York," Reisenbach's memory will inspire a new municipal holiday. On Tuesday, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg proclaimed Dec. 8 as the "John A Reisenbach Foundation Day" in the city.