Lately, fans of Desperate Housewives, Lost and other top shows have been complaining about excessive commercials that seem more intrusive than ever and slow down the programs they surround. Viewers have been griping about ads on TV since the days of black-and-white sets. Some have turned to digital video recorders such as TiVo to skip commercials altogether. Others sit and bear it. ABC ad-sales chief Mike Shaw says he's perplexed by increasing complaints.

Media conglomerate responds to financier's call for new board members.

Reach, Frequency, CPM are the common measures of TV planning. Of the three, CPM is the most widely watched because it has the short-hand advantage of bundling cost and value into a single number. But our focus on CPM has a price. Few planners believe the lowest CPM buy is best even when there is no sacrifice in Reach or Frequency. And yet few planners are able to fully justify paying more money for the same number of exposures.

Carl C. Icahn, the investor, has increased his stake in Time Warner and is challenging the track record of the company's senior managers and directors, dating back to its merger with America Online. The moves are a part of his campaign to push for changes and board seats at the media conglomerate.

British Airways has hired Bartle Bogle Hegarty for global creative chores on its global ad account following a review. Estimated billings are $100 million. The other finalists were WPP Group's JWT, Omnicom Group's DDB and the incumbent, independent M&C Saatchi.

Hear that? In the distance? It's a crowd forming -- a crowd of what you used to call your "audience." They're still an audience, but they aren't necessarily listening to you. They're listening to each other talk about you. And they're using your products, your brand names, your iconography, your slogans, your trademarks, your designs, your goodwill, all of it as if it belonged to them -- which, in a way, it all does, because, after all, haven't you spent decades, and trillions, to convince them of just that?

A year after a unanimous Republican-led Federal Communications Commission voted in new regulations for advertising on children's TV programs, major broadcast and kids networks are fighting the decision and are hoping to at least delay rules set to take effect Jan. 1, 2006. The Big Three broadcast networks say the rules will reduce advertising, crimp revenue and possibly threaten the financial underpinnings of children's programs, while forcing expensive redesigns of Web sites aimed at youth audiences. Children's advocates say the rules are already overdue and will help protect children from excessive marketing, especially via Web sites. Some want even stricter …

Those attending the 95th annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers could have been excused for believing that they were taking part in a new reality series called "Extreme Makeover: Madison Avenue Edition." Speaker after speaker at the meeting exhorted the more than 900 attendees to acknowledge and act on a new marketing reality: that major changes in consumer attitudes, habits and behavior will require completely making over how products are advertised.

Jobs at newspapers across the country are being cut as advertising and readers move online. Industrywide, ad revenue is flat, costs are up and circulation is eroding.

More than $350 million in billings may be awarded this week in two high-stakes global creative reviews: British Airways and Unilever's Omo. Interestingly, WPP Group's JWT and Publicis Groupe-backed Bartle Bogle Hegarty are going head to head for both accounts.