The scatter market in the fourth quarter is red-hot, with the cost of 30-second spots on broadcast and cable nets going for 30% to 50% more than during the upfront. Factors driving the market include those upfront 'holds to orders' coming due, with most advertisers committing to spend all that cash while the nets hold back some inventory until they determine the impact of commercial ratings. Furthermore, ABC, CBS and NBC have decided to sell some of the inventory they normally would have given advertisers as makegoods. These makegoods will now be offered in the new season, another drain …

High-definition TV makers are starting to jettison many of those techy catchwords in favor of good, old-fashioned branding. For instance, when Pioneer Electronics unveiled its new Kuro line, the company went with an approach that conveys a simple message: Kuro is Japanese for "black"--and its ads are described as sleek, black and simple, and incorporate photographs by award-winning shuttterbug photographer Nadav Kander. The idea is to express that "a full sensory experience of sight and sound results in feeling emotion as never before," the company says. One pioneer store in California is decked out with Kuros that measure up to …

TV broadcasters have launched an ad campaign aimed at defeating a tech industry proposal to transmit high-speed Internet service over unused airwaves. To pressure Uncle Sam, the National Association of Broadcasters--worried about possible interference with over-the-air TV--said their spots will air in the Washington, D.C. market, while print ads will run in Capitol Hill publications. The effort is against an initiative by a high-tech coalition that wants the feds to approve a prototype device that could transmit high-speed Internet, or broadband, service over an unlicensed and unused TV spectrum. That group includes titans like Microsoft, Google, Dell and Intel, and …

Parade could be one of the best return-on-investments going for the nation's advertisers--at least according to a study the Sunday magazine insert commissioned from Information Resources. In its look at four package-goods brands advertised in the magazine in 2006, IRI found they lifted sales an average of 20% the following week, with results ranging from 10% to 31%. Those tracked were Prilosec, DiGiorno pizza, Hefty OneZip bags and Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. And even some folks who believe in the power of advertising have trouble swallowing those numbers, which exceed usual modeling results that show single-digit sales bumps …

TBS has ordered up another season of 'My Boys' according to insiders, bringing the comedy back for a third go-round. The show concluded its second season Monday night, and has drawn an average of 1.5 million total viewers this summer--up from the 1.4 million it averaged in its first season, mostly aired in the fourth quarter of 2006. TBS is expected to pick up eight episodes for the third season; it had ordered 13 for the first, but trimmed that to seven this year. The Sony Pictures show stars Jordana Spiro as a female sportswriter among a cast of overgrown …

Cell phone companies are big on bragging, with Sprint claiming it has "the fastest and largest national mobile broadband network," and Verizon touting its network as "America's most reliable." And AT&T's big boast was about how it had the "fewest dropped calls" until a recent change. While the company says the reason for the change to "more bars in more places" is because "this is what our customers tell us over and over again is important to them," there could be some legal reasons behind it as well. Ira Spiro, an attorney representing an AT&T customer in a federal …

Political candidates have long used databases covering everything from which fliers to send to a specific voter to whether to send someone to knock on his or her door. But now, new technology that can send individualized ads to cable boxes could give candidates the ability to get into living rooms while altering their voice, appearance and policies to best suit each viewer. In other words, factors such as race, income, marital status and favorite brands might well determine exactly what individual voters learn about candidates while watching cable TV. While the technology of "addressable advertising" is not yet …

Samsung has put its massive global media account into review, according to insiders--putting at risk MindShare's hold on the business in about 60 markets, including the U.S., where it spent $140 million on ads in 2006. Total worldwide ad spending tops $500 million. Starcom will likely participate in the review, along with the incumbent, as sibling Leo Burnett is Samsung's creative agency. In 2005, Samsung dropped WPP shops Berlin Cameron United and JWT from creative and account planning duties. That happened less than a year after the company held a global holding-company review that was won by a WPP team …

A risqué new ad from Hardee's has upset one teachers' organization so much that they are demanding it be yanked from the air. The spot for the St. Louis-based fast-food chain features a sexy teacher making provocative moves in front of her class while students rap to a song called "Flat Buns." That prompted this response from the Tennessee Education Association: "How irresponsible can you get? At this very moment, there are female teachers in high school classrooms with 30+ students who are working hard to teach our children so that they can compete in today's world. It is unbelievably …

Monster.com has tapped BBDO to handle global creative on its estimated $200 million account. The shop's New York office and Atmosphere BBDO, a North American digital arm, will lead the efforts--while Deutsch and MindShare keep domestic and international media, which were not included in the review. BBDO's first work is expected to roll out early next year in conjunction with the start of the busiest job-hunting season. Independent agency Brand Content had been Monster's lead creative agency for two years, while Via in Portland, Maine had also done some work for the company.