Two weeks ago, Havas CEO Alain de Pouzilhac lost his fight to keep nemesis Vincent Bollore from seizing four seats on the holding company's board, but the feud between the blue-blooded holding company chieftain and the corporate raider raged on.

As sweltering temperatures drive waves of consumers away from TV, computers and their normal commuter routes and toward the distant shoreline, the industry of summer advertising is once again in full swing.

Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai can't seem to stop talking about how American they are. Not Mitsubishi; it wants you to know the red diamonds in its logo are as red as the rising sun. Complete with booming Japanese taiko drums and cars that bow in the customary Japanese show of respect, Mitsubishi's new advertising campaign for the Eclipse sports coupe tries to sell the company's Asian lineage.

This coming television season the broadcast networks will be stuffed with shows delving into the paranormal, but some of the oddest occurrences will have taken place behind the scenes. The four major networks will rely less than they have in seven seasons on new scripted programming from production companies residing in their media conglomerates.

Consumers today encounter from 3,500 to 5,000 marketing messages per day, vs. 500 to 2,000 in the 1970s, says J. Walker Smith, president of consumer and marketing watcher Yankelovich. The result: "There are so many ads out there that consumers actively avoid commercials today to an extent never before realized," says Dan Howard, professor of advertising and consumer behavior at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business. "No matter how many more ads we put out there, it's not going to work ... because it's not registering."

The muddled television upfront marketplace was lagging last week, with cable still several weeks from the finish line, syndication barely started and NBC, finally, just about done. But further confusing the already convoluted picture of ad negotiations for next season's inventory were reports from several broadcast network sources that certain media agencies were seeking and had committed to "add-ons" to the "holds" they had placed only a few weeks ago.

The family that controls Cablevision Systems Corp. has proposed taking the cable TV operator private while spinning off its entertainment assets, which include the New York Knicks and Rangers, Madison Square Garden and cable channels like American Movie Classics into a separate publicly traded company.

Toyota Motor Corp. has asked at least three major magazine companies to explore product integration -- that's product placement to you and me -- of its cars into magazine editorial pages. Say hello to another indicator of changing media mores.

GM's "employee discount" promotion, which is pulling more potential buyers into showrooms, has also evoked strong responses from Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group.

Sirius Satellite Radio claims on its Web site that not all radio is created equal. Wall Street agrees. While shares of traditional radio operators like Clear Channel Communications and Citadel Broadcasting have floundered the past two years, the stocks of Sirius and its rival XM Satellite Radio have soared.