After being dumped by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., ad agency DraftFCB insists it did nothing wrong in the way it won the account. And the shop has received a show of support from parent Interpublic, which is standing behind Chief Executive Howard Draft and his management team. But the agency still finds itself under a glare of publicity and potentially in a vulnerable business position. Late last week, Draft sent a memo titled "Truth and Trust" to staffers and some clients that tries quell speculation and media coverage about its pitch for Wal-Mart's prized $570 million account. …

Simplicity and humor are key elements to ads that consumers like, according to a USA Today survey of consumer reaction to advertising. And the most-liked of 43 spots tracked this year was the slapstick spot for Windex, in which two wise-cracking birds trick a man into bumping into his patio door. Thanks to Windex, it's so clean it looks open. "To have a campaign work for six years is truly amazing," says Kelly Semrau, vice president of consumer affairs for S.C. Johnson, which makes Windex. But the ad is more than just a joke: It also finished No. 4 …

Rainbow Media's IFC has signed up another integrated sponsor, making a deal with Brown-Forman's Southern Comfort on a series of short films that will run on the network through March. The movies, to start as on-air interstitials this week, profile New Orleans musicians, many of them displaced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. They were created by Arnold Worldwide and are part of Southern Comfort's "Start the Music Up" program, which seeks to raise money for local musicians and the New Orleans Area Habitat For Humanity. Shot on location last April, the shorts mix live performance …

It has been a bad enough year for consumer magazines, with ad pages flat, but it has been an abysmal one for books geared to the African American audience. Ad pages are down 5% through November. Much of that comes from big cuts in spending by automakers, which have been far more severe for the black titles, at just over 19%, according to Black Magazine Monitor. In contrast, major consumer titles tracked by Publishers Information Bureau have seen a more modest 10.9% fall in auto dollars this year. And to make things worse, the black titles aren't seeing …

When DirecTV's Hotpass service launches five Nascar channels next month, sponsors will have an unusual opportunity: Each channel will be dedicated to a specific driver, with the lineup changing weekly. The team sponsor will have exclusive logo space throughout the race--and possibly even more airtime during commercials. During every local break, the corresponding channel's team will have a minute to devote to advertising of its choice. "Some teams may choose to talk about merchandise, some may choose to talk about their driver's winery," says Eric Shanks, executive vice president, DirecTV Entertainment. But either way, "no corporate sponsor has …

"Due to a sourcing glitch and reporter error, the Qorvis story that appeared in Around the Net in Media on Monday was about an event that was more than 2 years old and linked to a story that was also more than 2 years old. We apologize for the error. A more recent story about Qorvis, from an Oct. 27 story in The Washington Post can be read here.

The Department of Justice is looking into charges that the government of Saudi Arabia, working with a top-tier Washington public-relations firm, deceptively financed an ad campaign touting Crown Prince Abdullah's plan for peace in the Middle East. Federal prosecutors want to determine whether the Saudi Embassy's PR firm--Qorvis Communications--made false statements and violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a 1938 law that requires full disclosure of foreign-sponsored propaganda in the United States. The probe into the 2002 radio campaign, which was paid for by a group called the Alliance for Peace and Justice, led to an FBI raid on the …

CBS has sold about 80% of the ad time for Super Bowl XLI, set to air Feb. 4 from in Miami. Although John Bogusz, executive vice president of sports sales at CBS, would not confirm the current near-sellout level, he says that the first half of the game was "virtually sold out with some spots left, predominantly in the fourth quarter." The net will not identify specific sponsors, but several marketers have confirmed that they are in the game--including Anheuser-Busch, General Motors, CareerBuilder.com, Federal Express and GoDaddy.com. Bogusz says it is too early to say what the average price of …

Keith Olbermann and MSNBC are at odds over a new contract as the wildly popular host of "Countdown" is said to want "north of $4 million" a year in the wake of a huge ratings surge for his show. His contract expires in April, and the target figure would be a fourfold increase over his current deal. He wants the big bump because "Countdown" has been one of the hottest properties on cable: In the 25-54 demo, ratings are up 25% year-to-date and an astounding 75% so far in the fourth quarter. But, the trade magazine notes, "MSNBC brass may …

Two years back, office-supply retailer Staples began a new ad campaign that, says marketing executive Shira Goodman, was designed to push the notion that its stores are an especially easy place to shop. "All of our ad gurus got together and said: 'How do we make this amorphous concept of "easy" very tangible, so our consumers can really hang on to it?'," Goodman says. The answer: A series of TV spots where people perform tedious or onerous tasks instantly by pressing a big red button that says "Easy." But now there is consumer demand for the prop itself. Seven months …