Small marketers targeting regional customers via search engine advertising can now save money by using a new service from Yahoo. Called Yahoo Local Sponsored Search, the service lets marketers target ads to a specific state, city, or even neighborhood. As a result, the marketer's ads pop up only when someone within 75 miles of the targeted area does a search using the keywords the company has chosen. Advertisers save money because, since they pay for each click, only real potential customers will see the ads, not users who are too far away to buy the product or service but may …

McDonald's Corp. is getting ready to fight back against a new book and a movie that claims the fast-food companies are responsible for the nation's childhood-obesity epidemic.  The book is called Chew On This, a 270-page title aimed at 11- to 15-year-olds.  The movie is a film version of the bestseller Fast Food Nation. Both books were written by Eric Schlosser. Chew On This publisher Houghton Mifflin Co. says in promotional materials for the book that it will show kids "the fascinating and sometimes frightening truth about what lurks between those sesame-seed buns."  The book also criticizes McDonald's for being …

Chinese computer maker Lenovo is surprising industry observers in its haste to jettison the world-famous IBM brand name from its products. Lenovo bought IBM's personal computing business for $1.75 billion in December 2004 in a deal that would allow the company the rights to use the IBM name for five years, which most marketing experts expected them to do because of the strength of the name. But since Lenovo took over the business May 1, the company's advertising and marketing efforts have excluded the IBM name almost entirely from all of its commercial messages. For example, the four television spots …

General Motors' Saturn brand, once a bright star in the GM stable of vehicles, is readying a relaunch that includes a new marketing campaign and three new models. Critics say one of the reason Saturn sales began flagging was because it failed to offer any new products. But all that will soon change when the company unveils the Aura, a sport sedan that will hit showrooms this summer; the Sky Red Line, a hyper-powered version of Saturn's roadster that goes on sale this fall, and the Outlook, an eight-passenger crossover that will hit the market with its 2007 model late …

Once sneered at by most major marketers as being low-rent and tacky, direct response TV advertising is gaining respectability. The reason is because when it comes to hot marketing buzzwords like ROI, measurement, and engagement, DRTV offers advantages that its more upscale brethren do not. In fact, DRTV experts predict that in five or 10 years all TV advertising will be some form of direct response because it can deliver on those highly sought-after goals. "People think that direct response is all about pills and potions and get-rich-quick schemes," said Michael Kokernak, CEO of Backchannel Media, a DRTV specialty agency …

Dunkin' Donuts is launching a new multimedia advertising campaign that the company says will represent its "most significant repositioning effort" in it 55-year history. At the core of the camping is the idea that the chain sells as much coffee--if not more--as it does donuts. Boston-based ad agency Hill Holliday has created eight music-themed ads that show how the chain keeps Americans fueled and on the go. They are meant to be "everyday anthems" that illustrate how people tackle everyday tasks with a little boost from Dunkin' Donuts' quality, affordably priced and quickly served products. A month ago Dunkin Donuts …

ExxonMobil's sponsorship of last weekend's Masters Golf Tournament has landed the company in hot water with some of its shareholders. The famous tournament is held at the Augusta National Gold Club in Georgia, which only allows men as members. The shareholders have charged that Exxon's sponsorship of the event violates the company's discrimination policies. ExxonMobil said it determines which events to support financially based on an assessment of business needs, fit with corporate social objectives and overall effectiveness. Company spokesperson Dave Gardner said that the Masters was chosen because it provides a unique opportunity to promote the company's messages--including ExxonMobil's …

In a new branded entertainment initiative, Coca-Cola Co. is creating its own music program that will be distributed through its own Web site and via peer-to-peer networks in formats optimized for viewing on computers and on portable devices like iPods and PSPs. The show, entitled "Stageside" will showcase Island Def Jam R&B star Ne-Yo as its first artist. The free program is not protected by digital-rights management technology of any kind and is completely free and legal. The concept of the show is for fans to share with all of their friends using any means they want, so DRM would …

Marketers are beginning to discover that the Holy Grail of demographic groups may not be the 18- to 49-year-old segment after all. After years of targeting consumers in that age bracket because of their perceived youthfulness, advertisers are now realizing that perhaps they have wrongly ignored an even more powerful group of consumers with considerable amounts of money to spend--the baby boomers. Marketers of automobiles, financial services and packaged goods are finding that even though the boomers are aging--many of them are moving into their 60s--they still embrace the consumer culture as enthusiastically as they did in their younger years. …

In a stunning reversal of conventional marketing wisdom, model Kate Moss will once again serve as the "face" of Calvin Klein jeans, in a new ad campaign scheduled to break this fall. Moss was the center of a scandal late last year when a British tabloid published photographs of her allegedly snorting cocaine at a London recording session. Traditionally, when celebrity endorsers--or in Moss's case, a celebrity spokesmodel--are caught in a scandal, the marketer drops them for fear of guilt by association. But Moss, who first appeared in an ad campaign for Calvin Klein jeans in 1992, will be shown …