Vogue is mixing mass with class in its glossy pages. The magazine is running ads for huge discount retailer Wal-Mart alongside upscale designers such as Gucci, Oscar de la Renta and Roberto Cavalli. The Wal-Mart ads are the latest sign that Vogue is lowering the bar for advertisers. Some ad execs and media buyers have criticized the trend, saying the ads don't live up to the magazine's stature.

Advertisers and agencies seeking endorsers for campaigns are making belles of the ball of the actresses appearing on the hit ABC series "Desperate Housewives," which is to return for a second season on Sept. 25. Almost every cast member is in an ad, some for more than one marketer, in a rush reminiscent of the ardor to use the actors from other popular shows like "Friends" and "Sex and the City."

The idea of a presenting sponsor taking ownership of a media channel is not new. As a tactic it enjoyed its broadcast heyday between 1930 and 1960, and has popped up periodically across all media ever since. Still, as I flicked through the August 22 issue of the New Yorker it dawned on me that it's time is now. As many will have read, that New Yorker issue had only one advertiser. Retail giant Target, abetted by Hayworth Marketing & Media and Peterson Milla Hooks, bought every ad site in the issue and then populated those spaces with exclusive images …

Men's fashion has hit a new low - and it's really, really low. An ad for the Dolce & Gabbana fall men's line featuring extremely low-riding jeans - nicknamed "pubic pants" by the fashion press - is an attention grabber, even in New York.

After drawing a near record-low audience last year, the organizers of the Emmy Awards are plotting a 20-minute commercial to be shown in-flight on United Airlines to help reverse a dramatic ratings slide.

Jim Robbins is shaking up the status quo once more before he retires from the helm of Atlanta-based Cox Communications at year's end. He is pursuing an industrywide wireless alliance to transport cable's bundled services outside the home and placing retransmission reform back on the Washington agenda. "The one thing I want to accomplish before I retire, if I can, is a wireless deal for the industry," Robbins said in an interview.

The American operations of a leading British agency, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, will for the first time be led by an American. Advertising people, where do they get their clever ideas?

The announcer, who has been subbing for Larry King, disapproved of Thursday night's focus: a teen's disappearance in Aruba and BTK.

Like a hungry shark circling its prey, Comcast and its Outdoor Life Network, now referred to as OLN, is continuing its low-key but determined move to take a bite out of cable sports kingpin ESPN.

Thirty days hath September, but that may not be enough time to look through the month's advertising-stuffed magazines. Marketers of products like apparel and cosmetics, which seek to reach consumers as the fall fashions begin to appear, have been joined by automakers, whose new-model years begin Oct. 1; retailers, hoping to stimulate demand ahead of the holiday season; sellers of products like sneakers and video games, sponsoring promotions tied to National Football League games; and marketers of children's merchandise, taking aim at parents as school starts.