An attempted Federal Communications Commission crackdown on "fleeting" profanity looks like it will remain in limbo until sometime next year, or possibly even the next. The solicitor general--essentially Uncle Sam's lawyer--told the U.S. Supreme Court that it would team up with the FCC to challenge a lower court reversal of a finding against Fox for expletives on the Billboard Music Awards in 2002 and 2003. Ever since, the FCC's policy has been unclear, and any fines or findings are unlikely until the legal issues are settled. According to some veteran First Amendment attorneys, the high court won't decide whether to …

When asked about advertising, the word that U.S. consumers most closely associate with it is "false," according to a study from Nielsen BuzzMetrics, which measures brand perceptions. That nugget of data was revealed during a recent word association project in conjunction with a broader survey by Nielsen of consumer attitudes toward advertising in 47 countries. And one key finding is that consumers place more trust in personal recommendations than in ads. "The advertising industry has to do better work, and it has to do a better job at communicating the value it brings to consumers," says Jonathan Carson, co-founder of …