Anglo-Dutch food-to-detergents group Unilever is seeking lower advertising costs with a new deal with Mindshare but has no plans to reduce its publicity spending, a spokesman said on Sunday.

For marketers who want to transform cellphones into personalized multimedia advertising machines, there is some recommended viewing at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam this year: an entry called "Cell Stories," sponsored by Motorola, that was shot entirely with the video camera in a new Motorola cellphone.

After years of finding only static, Microsoft is hoping that its TV software effort is starting to get a decent reception. The software maker has spent years working on the software and invested billions of dollars in cable companies, but has seen only modest returns.

Music Choice is rarely noticed by its users, even though its service is in nearly 40 million homes. It is the company that operates the 40 audio music channels that are offered on many digital cable television services.

Despite the slow economic growth worldwide, higher ad rates per country and a precipitous decline in the U.S. dollar combined to boost media spending by the Top 100 global marketers in 2003 by 11.6% -- a dramatic jump over the 7.1% growth in 2002 and a 2.6% decline in 2001 for these mega-marketers.

Despite the massive advertising in swing states by both parties and their allied 527 committees, the evidence is that ads didn't work in the elections of 2004.

"Look Papa, it's you." So says my 4-year-old every morning as I'm driving the kids to day care ... right past the huge billboard of Mr. Incredible, the portly protagonist of Pixar's latest blockbuster. I'm sure you've seen the ads. Most of them feature a guy in bulging red tights with a huge gut. Some have a tagline reading, "He's twice the man he used to be." Others show Mr. Incredible lying on his stomach with his head and feet about three feet in the air. You get the picture.

In an unexpected development, Information Resources Inc. (IRI), a market research firm best known for its consumer product scanner panels, has licensed TiVo's audience data for a new research service it claims will reveal the true impact of DVR technology on advertising.

The outlook for retail advertising during the holiday season is uncertain - at best. When asked during a Knight Ridder Q3 conference call in mid-October about holiday activity, Steve Rossi, president of the newspaper division, responded with the proverbial shrug: They just don't know what to expect. Over at Sears, Matt Spahn, director of media planning, was coy about holiday spending, though he did say his plans have not changed significantly from what they were last year. "In terms of newspaper advertising, those plans are and have been very aggressive in trying to compete in a marketplace. I would not …

Read books, get sex: That's what racy advertisements on hundreds of city buses are suggesting to teens - and red-faced transit bosses are outraged. The salacious ads by hip-hop clothing line Akademiks declare: "Read Books, Get Brain." But kids say "get brain" does not mean smarts. It's slang for oral sex.