Impatient, grumbling and stuck: That's the winning combination for airport marketing. Those bins that hold your shoes at the airport are actually called divesting trays and Security Point Media is betting that advertisers will divest themselves of lots of money to get their ads in them. It could be a dream come true - to reach a captive (albeit possibly grumpy) audience of millions. The SecureTray System, which includes tables, bins and carts for transporting them, was granted a yearlong pilot program by the TSA last year, spanning 14 airports and ending in May. Online footwear retailer zappos.com pointed fliers …

McDonald's has crossed oceans and braved language barriers to come to a location near everyone. While Mickey D's can rake in the euros and the yen, the success of its multicultural campaigns in the States remains questionable. Its latest tagline, "I'm lovin' it," is translated into multiple languages on your super-size drink, but it doesn't stop there. The fast food giant owns three Web site domains targeting major minority groups - 365black.com, i-am-asian.com and meencanta.com. The sites feature interactive activities, even scholarships and career opportunities meant to elicit pride within each community - we think. Take i-am-asian.com: You can learn …

For their June issue, the editors of This Old House did something new: They all went to Aruba, or possibly Turks and Caicos, and instead of coming up with ways to waterproof a basement or lay a vinyl floor in less than 30 seconds, they turned their magazine over to their suburban readership. Thus was born "Your Old House" - from front to back, the entire issue was created by readers, online users and TV show viewers. Ideas, stories and photos were submitted via a Web site. Visitors were then allowed to vote on the cover image and even served …

You don't need to wear a tin hat to have your suspicions about why big energy and their Pennsylvania Avenue cohorts deny global warming. Their way of economic life - liquidating fossil fuels for industrialized use - is under siege by crystal clear (and actually understated) data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shows human activity, not natural weather patterns, is the dominant cause of climate change.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the NBA must be feeling pretty good these days. Not since Las Vegas assured us "What Happens Here, Stays Here" has an ad been so satirized as Goodby, Silverstein's campaign for the NBA's "There Can Only Be One" campaign. The TV spots, which use a split screen to combine the faces of two NBA players simultaneously reciting a monologue about competition, have inspired parodies ranging from the low - adult-themed YouTube rip-offs - to the prestigious - the cover of Time's May 4 issue, which fused Barack Obama's face with Hillary Clinton's …

When Nintendo rolled out its long anticipated exercise peripheral the Wii Fit, marketers pitched it as the ultimate couch-potato killer. But the expectations inside the game developers' community are much larger. The Fit is seen as part of a strategy by Nintendo to create a wave of immersive devices.

As the never-ending hydration wars rage into month seven, it's no secret that Dunkin' Donuts has continued to encroach upon archrival Starbucks' market share on the battleground of caffeinated beverages. But leave it to Dunkin' spokeslady Rachael Ray to drag a completely different war - you know, that one about freedom - into the conflict.

You know mobile video is getting real when local TV finally gets involved. Treading where only advanced cell-phone operators, Wi-Fi providers and other new media mavens dared to go, old-school broadcasters - that's right, local TV affiliates - will soon be transmitting their signals, ads and all, to mobile devices in their markets.

Even for the OOH marketing world, Adpack USA is a bit niche. The company specializes in "promotional facial tissues, towelettes and wet towels." Last month AdPack held its second annual Tissue Tactics Contest (a challenge to marketers to come up with innovative promotions) in New York, where it awarded the world's largest tissue pack and $6,000 to first place winner Creative Jones. CJ's big idea? A pitch for a wedding planner client with the tag "Cry for all the Right Reasons." (As if there are wrong ones; not to a tissue man, there aren't.) The possibilities are endless: Besides weddings, …

Looks like radio is finally taking, well ... radio, seriously. Pummeled by losing market share, declining stock values and an eroding position in the media-buying topology of both traditional and new media agencies, the radio industry has decided it's time to start investing in itself.