Current Thinking Brand Consonance

Magazine winners and losers.

NASCAR efforts require a lot of homework.

Upfront up, but can a recovery last?

Reaching boys and men is all about catching some air.

The Big Five sports face new challenges.

Network TV’s first fall lineup post 9/11 reflects a renewed reliance on safer, more traditional fare, and while the new season certainly won’t dazzle viewers with edginess or originality, it should produce more than a few hits. This year the major webs have ceded "alternative" programming to the cable channels. There won’t be any attempts to emulate Queer as Folk or Six Feet Under. For that matter, there won’t be any new courtroom dramas to unnerve audiences with knotty moral or ethical problems. And sinister spy dramas that hint at top-level government conspiracies will be conspicuous …

Talk about American brands! Chevrolet and its flagship brand — the Corvette — have been an integral part of our cultural landscape for many decades. Thanks to Chuck Berry, Don McLean, The Beach Boys and Prince, Chevy and Corvette are bona fide cultural icons. It’s no wonder the automaker decided to draw on that fame in its new ad campaigns. Two major marketing and advertising initiatives are on the way from Chevy and the Corvette brand. First, Corvette is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Second, Chevy will break with the tried-and-true Detroit practice of focusing advertising on …

Marketers help new moms give babies "the very best."

iTV‘Madison’s Wedding’ on Demandby Lee Hall, lee@deadlinemedia.net It's amazing what people will do when they have something new. Take the curious case of "Madison's Wedding," a locally produced video-on-demand project on Time Warner Cable's Raleigh, N.C., system. "Madison's Wedding" documents the marriage of Madison Lane, a popular radio personality in the market. The video, all 98 minutes of it, was offered for sale to the cable company's 130,000 customers. An experiment, said Time Warner Cable. A promotion, said WDCG-FM, Lane's station. Backed by a ton of on-air mentions on the …