While I'm eating a slice of pizza, my boyfriend is home taping my favorite TV show," Miranda, a character from "Sex and the City," said in an episode last year. "And to which boyfriend are we referring?" asked Carrie. "My boyfriend, TiVo," Miranda replied. It may have seemed a proud moment for marketers of TiVo, the digital recording device and service - not least because, even in the playful transmutation of TiVo from inanimate object to object of affection, it remained a noun.

ABC is poised to reap a spring advertising windfall from smash hit Desperate Housewives. That has executives at Disney and ABC counting their dollars over on Wisteria Lane. The freshman series was supposed to run only through the fall portion of the of the 2004-05 TV season. Jennifer Garner's spy drama, Alias, was to take over its 9 p.m. ET Sunday time slot in January. But with Housewives emerging as the hottest new show of the year, Disney quickly picked it up for a full season and moved Alias to Wednesdays at 9 p.m. after Lost.

In the age of cell phones, those boxy pay phone kiosks that dot city streets may seem like relics of a bygone era. Now, a new city regulation is expected to make them disappear even faster. In parts of the city, they're still a part of the fabric of life, providing the only 911 service available on the street and handling 3.2 million calls per week on 29,000 phones citywide. But after years of complaints by community boards to limit the visual clutter, the city agency that regulates pay phones has recently banned ads on all new kiosks in Manhattan …

The Saatchi & Saatchi worldwide chief executive knows how rapidly advertising and marketing are changing, and convinces Raymond Snoddy that his finger is firmly on the pulse.

Air America Radio, the left-leaning radio network, announced Wednesday it had signed new multi-year contracts with its leading talent, comedian Al Franken, who broadcasts Noon to 3 p.m., and afternoon drive host, Randi Rhodes. Franken's deal is for two years, with an option for a third year, while Rhodes' contract is for three years.

We live in the age of the digital packet. Documents, images, music, phone calls - all get chopped up, propelled through networks, and reassembled at the other end according to Internet protocol. So why not TV?

John Kennedy. Jackson Pollock. Mick Jagger. The Ramones. John Belushi in "Animal House.'' They all wore Converse. The company's famous Chuck Taylor All Star shoes have become pure Americana. So, when the Sausalito advertising agency Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners was competing for the Converse account last spring, it was not surprising to hear the shoe company say it doesn't own the brand -- the consumers do.

If the Super Bowl is America's annual midwinter festival of commercialism, it is only appropriate that the city playing host to the next one is introducing its first branding campaign.

The question a U.S. soldier asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday about the lack of armor on some combat vehicles in Iraq was planted by a newspaper reporter embedded with the soldier's unit, the reporter told colleagues in an e-mail.

Employment Web site operator Monster Worldwide Inc. on Friday said it signed a one-year marketing agreement with Viacom International Inc.'s radio operator Infinity Broadcasting to promote its products online and on the air. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.