With Super Bowl ads costing as much as $3 million for a 30-second spot, some marketers are wondering if they can afford them this year. And if they can afford them, will such advertising seem overly extravagant to scrimping consumers? "With this much money on the line, it can reflect negatively on companies, especially if they are cutting staff or getting a government bailout," says Steve Lanzano, MPG executive. For instance, FedEx, a loyal Super Bowl advertiser, is concerned that shelling out big bucks this year, when it's "asking employees to do more with less" will look …

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings says third-quarter profits dropped 83.3% as the global slowdown hits international ad markets. The San Antonio-based company, which specializes in billboards and other outdoor displays, says growth in digital U.S. networks and billboard demand in Latin American partially offset weakness in its Americas division. Hurting its profits were declining ad demand overseas and changes in foreign exchange rates, which raised third-quarter operating expenses by $18.1 million. "Internationally, we felt the impact of the growing global slowdown across our Western European businesses, particularly in France and the U.K.," says an executive.

Mounting debt and a sharp drop in advertising at many radio broadcasters have led to a slashing of their valuations to fire-sale levels. Up to the late 1990s, broadcast radio was highly profitable, weathering challenges from TV, the Internet and other rivals. But now all that has changed. "It's grim, absolutely the worst I've seen,"" says Farid Suleman, CEO of Citadel Broadcasting, owner of a radio network and 200 radio stations in the nation's largest markets.

Media buyers are shocked that Levi's wants an accurate idea of what other agencies are paying for ad buys. But if you look at the issue from the client's point of view, the real scandal is media buyers' lack of transparency on pricing issues. In virtually every other market -- from the stock exchange to the supermarket -- prices are on full display for everyone to see. But on Madison Avenue, if a client wants to know what its competitors and non-competitors are paying for media, and what agencies are charging them to handle it, different rules apply. …

MediaCom is aggressively reshaping its organization under the tutelage of Doug Checkeris, North American CEO. The reorg includes integrating digital, realigning of clients into five core clusters, and strengthening planning, search, events and branded entertainment capabilities. Plans also call for new office space. Next year, all 500 MediaCom staffers will move to the same building as sister shop Mindshare in New York's garment district. The space includes a loft-like area that will serve as auditorium, café and meeting space. Perhaps most telling in the new space is that no one at MediaCom will get an office. …

Dish Network announces that it will be using Invidi's Advatar technology to deliver addressable, targeted national and local television advertising. Dish will be among the first pay-TV providers to sell ads according to specific household geographic, demographic and other pre-determined viewer metrics. Traditional satellite broadcast delivery is currently limited to all homes receiving the same commercials. Invidi's system complies with all privacy laws and the company's own privacy policy, according to Dish.

A boom in outdoor advertising has turned Moscow into one of Europe's largest billboard markets, transforming parts of the city into a Times Square-style patchwork of ads in all shapes and sizes. But the spreading ad clutter in historic and tourist districts embarrasses many Muscovites and worries the local ad industry. Many industry executives are now backing the city's push to thin thickets of competing signs and remove larger ads from historic areas. Is this a backlash that could spread to other cities?

Prime-time TV could be credited for paving the way for Barack Obama's historic victory. In recent years, viewers have seen an African-American TV president played by Dennis Haysbert on "24," and -- in an almost eerily prescient parallel -- Matt Santos (played by Jimmy Smits), was a youthful minority congressman who defeated an older senator in the final season of "The West Wing." Obama's debt to television goes even deeper, with his mastery of TV's grammar and visual imagery. For instance, the candidate's slick prime-time infomercial employed a heart-tugging newsmagazine format, proving he picked up a few tricks …