• Boston Herald, Tuesday, May 1, 2007 11 AM

The adventures of a modern media buyer are not usually the standard children's book fare. An effort to bring in more sponsorship dollars for its kids shows has Boston PBS affiliate WGBH creating a story book about a media buyer convincing a client to put ads in shows like "Arthur" and "Clifford the Big Red Dog."

WGBH sent copies of "The Happy Client" to more than 1,000 industry contacts and says it is a creative way to keep PBS Kids shows top of mind. "A lot of media dollars are being spent right now, and our goal was to find a creative way to get the attention of media buyers," says Marcia Hertz, managing director of marketing and client services at WGBH's national sponsorship department.

But Robert Weissman, managing director of the Washington, D.C., activist group Commercial Alert, claims the book is one more sign that PBS' mission is going awry: "It sounds like this product is a further weakening of its noncommercial status." While sponsorship spots for "Curious George" and "Arthur" are open, Hertz notes there are guidelines that bar sponsors from showing their products on PBS children's shows or publicity materials.

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