The New Jersey state attorney gene has filed a lawsuit against Blockbuster charging that the rental chain's "End of Late Fees" advertising campaign is "fraudulent and deceptive."

Hunter S. Thompson died on Sunday, alone with a gun in his kitchen in Woody Creek, Colo. In doing so, he added heft to a legend that came to obscure his gifts as one of journalism's most influential practitioners.

Hunter S. Thompson, the anger-driven, drug-fueled writer for Rolling Stone magazine whose obscenity-laced prose broke down the wall between reader and writer, writer and subject, shot and killed himself on Sunday at his home in Woody Creek, Colo. He was 67.

Nielsen Media Research is taking significant additional steps to address the complaints of critics who have been increasingly vociferous in challenging how the company gathers television ratings data. The steps, described as an action plan by Nielsen in a detailed eight-page letter, include a proposal from the company to set aside $2.5 million to pay for a year's worth of methodological research. The research would be conducted in cooperation with Nielsen's clients rather than unilaterally, the company pledged, and the results after the first year would determine the budget for subsequent spending.

PepsiCo Inc. may be only the world's No. 2 soft drinks maker, but in terms of product placement on the big screen it outranked every other brand on the planet in 2004. Brandcameo, a product placement offshoot of consultants Brandchannel (www.brandchannel.com), awarded its top tongue-in-cheek "accolade" to the maker of Pepsi, Aquafina and Mountain Dew on Sunday after the Pepsi brand featured in no less than one in five No. 1 U.S. movie box office smashes last year.

For the first time in its history, CNN's Headline News is tinkering with its all-news format.

Actor John Travolta's direct involvement enabled MGM and General Motors Corp. to put together a major Cadillac product-placement deal for the new film Be Cool in record time, according to participants.

In the ongoing culture wars over whether gays should have the right to marry, an animated question reared its head on Sunday prime-time television: as goes "The Simpsons," does the nation go, too?

Hunter S. Thompson, the maverick journalist and author whose savage chronicling of the underbelly of American life and politics embodied a new kind of nonfiction writing he called "gonzo journalism," died yesterday in Colorado. Tricia Louthis, of the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office, said Mr. Thompson had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Woody Creek, Colo., yesterday afternoon. He was 65.

Even as many marketers are trying to entrance consumers with longer commercials on television, advertisers on the in-store network at Wal-Mart are honing the sale of products in 10-second spots.