You're deep in an online game, storming through a gritty urban landscape. The enemy? A gang of brawling thugs armed with baseball bats. You battle furiously, take out the last villain, and look up in triumph. And the first thing your eyes light upon is a billboard hawking Starbucks. Take note if your favorite online game has billboards, banners, and other signage sprinkled around the landscape. Although some games already contain real ads, many still have signs promoting imaginary companies or services. But that may not last much longer--two online ad networks, the type of company that dreamed up banner …

Suze Orman wants to tell you about a can't-miss car deal. Ms. Orman is a financial planner, CNBC talk show host, motivational speaker and best-selling author of such books as "The Courage to Be Rich," and now, she has been tapped by General Motors to pitch the company's latest marketing promotion, which G.M. is calling "Lock 'n' Roll."

More than 20 ABC affiliates have announced that they will not participate in the network's Veterans Day broadcast of "Saving Private Ryan," saying its violence and language could draw sanctions from the Federal Communications Commission. The Steven Spielberg film, which includes profanity and a violent depiction of the D-Day invasion, ran uncut on ABC with relatively little controversy in 2001 and 2002.

Buy a TiVo lately? Sometime in the next few months, your machine will quietly download a patch that makes it respond to a new copy protection scheme from software maker Macrovision. The app puts restrictions on how long your DVR can save certain kinds of shows - so far, just pay-per-view and video-on-demand programs. It's the first time your TiVo won't let you watch whatever you want, whenever you want. We asked TiVo general counsel Matthew Zinn why he thinks Hollywood will settle for an inch when it can take a mile.

What do you get when you mix orange and blue? A nondescript brown. But by mixing their brand colors together, Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless hope it will result in something much brighter. Following the Oct. 26 merger, Cingular has been working to integrate the two companies. Besides combining infrastructures, the "new Cingular" faces the challenge of getting across a new, singular advertising and marketing identity.

Schwarzenegger, in Tokyo on a trade mission, says he would use his paycheck from a commercial to open a state trade office there.

NASCAR officials have paved the way for hard liquor sponsorship in the premier stock car series. NASCAR president Mike Helton confirmed Wednesday the longstanding ban on hard-liquor advertising will be lifted in time for 2005.

Leading national retailers - worried about the size of their coming holiday haul - are intensifying efforts to find the right advertising to entice jaded shoppers into opening their wallets and purses before Dec. 25.

Media company E.W. Scripps Co. on Wednesday raised its forecast for fourth-quarter broadcast television advertising revenue, citing a stronger-than-expected market for political commercials in October.

Mirroring the dramatic finish in the presidential race, ABC, CBS and NBC battled it out for the top spots in the Nielsen standings during the week of Nov. 1, which included Election Night and the first four nights of the November sweep.