Havas's top shareholder, financier Vincent Bollore, said on Thursday he planned to keep his investment in the advertising group for the long-term and pledged in colourful terms not to act as a corporate raider.

It seemed tame by comparison to Carl's Jr.'s new Paris Hilton ads, but Plugg Jeans Co.'s shot of a woman holding a man's leg perilously close to his privates has been rejected for a billboard in Times Square and in a number of teen titles.

Meredith Corp. on Thursday said it has moved ahead with its $350 million deal to buy a string of U.S. magazines from Bertelsmann, saying the sides had signed a definitive agreement. The deal is expected to close by June 30, adding modestly to Meredith's earnings in 2006. The deal was announced May 24.

Satellite radio services Sirius and XM have launched ad campaigns targeting WCBS-FM listeners still steamed by Infinity Broadcasting's decision to dump its oldies format for the more contemporary "Jack."

Comic Dave Chappelle has met with executives at Comedy Central for the first time since his unscheduled "spiritual retreat" in South Africa forced the suspension of the third season of his show.

The Gap Inc.'s Old Navy chain, which reported declining same-store sales for the first quarter, is changing course with its agency of record, Deutsch Los Angeles, and will work with a variety of agencies for creative projects.

Circulation scandals that have rocked the newspaper and magazine industry "appear to be a matter of ice cubes rather than icebergs," the head of the Audit Bureau of Circulations told the American Advertising Federation today.

A new ad campaign warns teenage girls about the danger of online sexual predators. One in five children received a sexual solicitation in 1998 and 1999, according to a survey of 1,500 regular Internet users age 10 to 17, conducted for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Justice Department. The study was done by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.

Newspapers, radio and magazines are spending millions to combat the perception they're obsolete.

With much of the broadcast networks' upfront business concluded, cable networks might have to live with its legacy: a mostly flat marketplace and a modest gain in CPMs at best.