From the Chrysler New Yorker to the 5th Avenue candy bar, marketers have always borrowed New York imagery to add panache and glamour to their products. But now, New York is a hotter label than ever, with more and more companies looking to get on board. Subaru of America has opted for downtown chic, introducing the B9 Tribeca, a sport utility vehicle. Maybelline has become Maybelline New York. In the clothing world, there's DKNY, New York Industrie, Kenneth Cole New York, New York Laundry, New York Transit, Jones New York and Anne Klein New York. Even the designer jeans label …

Bob Wright, chairman and CEO of NBC Universal, has a lot more than primetime on his mind these days. Although NBC's fall from first to fourth place in the nightly ratings race last season has been the focus of much recent media and Wall Street attention, Wright and his top lieutenants have higher hurdles to scale than just plugging the holes on Thursday night.

Viacom and cable giant Comcast plan to unveil a wide-ranging joint venture that will create several new cable networks, The Post has learned. The venture, which will be jointly owned by Comcast and Viacom's MTV Networks, will include several lifestyle channels - on topics such as cars and wealth - as well as video-on-demand and e-commerce, according to a source close to Comcast.

After being passed over for a chance to replace NBC News chief Neal Shapiro, MSNBC boss Rick Kaplan's job is in jeopardy. Sources say Kaplan is likely to be out as the head of the ratings-challenged cable news network by the end of the year.

Want a billboard for Christmas? Better hurry, they're almost gone. Advertisers' concerns about the fragmentation of TV audiences and the tuning out of broadcast messages have driven demand for out-of-home inventory to levels unseen since the halcyon dot-com days of the late '90s.

Teri Hatcher is hiding her gray hair - and she's not shy about talking about it. Hatcher, one of the stars of ABC's "Desperate Housewives," is the new spokeswoman for Clairol's Nice 'n Easy hair color. The actress says she's had a spot of gray since she was 25. She will star in both print and TV ads for the at-home product.

Higher-brow original programming is grabbing audiences and advertisers.

Product placement, already common in TV programs, movies and video games, now is being seen in yet another medium: commercials. Marketers are pushing products in other marketers' commercials.

Volkswagen's sweeping shift last week of its estimated $400 million North American creative account to Crispin Porter + Bogusky without a review illustrates what some say is the smartest, most efficient way to hire an agency. And it reinforces once again the notion that advertising, rather than being "all about the work," as some say, is first and foremost a relationship-driven business.

As I write this, I am cinching my luggage tight and preparing to head out for JFK International Airport on the first leg of an Advertising Age reporting trip that will take me and my readers across a globe-spanning swath of "Airworld." Airworld is the name we have given to the invisible country that begins on the other side of the x-ray machines and extends in all directions beyond the concourses as the air corridors through which our airplanes fly. Among other things, this closed system of terminals and shuttling aircraft is its own vast media and retail ecosystem. Taken …