Medialets, the company that introduced the shakeable ad for Dockers last year, today rolls out its latest mobile format: a new type of expandable ad that can unfurl gradually in any direction instead of all at once. The in-app “Adaptable” unit, designed for all iOS devices but especially geared to the iPad, is aimed at giving marketers more flexibility in deciding where expanding ad creative displays on the screen. One set of demo images of a generic Adaptable ad shows a banner ad for a car at the bottom of the screen. When clicked on, the car drives out …

Recent product launches, including Chocolate Cheerios and Wheaties Fuel, along with growth in key brands such as Multigrain Cheerios and Fiber One, drove a 1% net sales gain and a net earnings gain of 13% for General Mills in its Q1 fiscal 2011 period, the company reported today. General Mills increased its advertising and media spend by 8% during the period. Analysts characterized the performance as good news for the food industry, particularly in the context of continued heavy price promotion activity.

Toyota, Microsoft and Citgo are sponsoring Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day. The annual event gets museums and cultural centers around the country to do for a day what the Smithsonian Institution does all the time: free admission. The organization says more than 1,300 museums are participating in the Sept, 25 event, and that last year over 300,000 people took advantage and two million people went to Smithsonian.com to get info. Toyota, which is presenting sponsor, supporting the Avalon, will provide docent tours, interactive trivia contests and giveaways at the Dallas Museum of Art; the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Ill.; The …

Brooklyn based Big Spaceship has released version 2.0 of its creation Most Awesomest Thing Ever, essentially a crowd-sourced game that perpetually randomly pits one thing against another (for instance "The Chicken Dance vs Spaceships" or "Chrome vs Gladiators" or "Jay-Z vs the Horsehead Nebula") asking the user to pick one based only on the vague attribute of "awesomeness." Users may also add items that go into the engine so long as they add a picture. Originally the results would be tabulated in master lists of the Most Awesomest ("Life" comes out on top) and the Most …

Google said Tuesday it has sued several pay-per-click marketers who allegedly violated the company's rules in order to illegally sell drugs online. "Like many online services, we have struggled with this problem for yearsm" the company wrote on its blog. "It's been an ongoing, escalating cat-and-mouse game—as we and others build new safeguards and guidelines, rogue online pharmacies always try new tactics to get around those protections and illegally sell drugs on the web."

Ad network VideoEgg said Tuesday it's acquiring blogging services company Six Apart to form a new company called Say Media with the goal of boosting advertising in conversational media. Terms of the deal, which is to be formally announced Wednesday, were not disclosed. The new entity combining VideoEgg's ad technology with the publishing platform of blogging pioneer Six Apart promises to power more engaging and interactive ad campaigns online and on mobile devices. The two companies first partnered last year in a deal in which Six Apart offered VideoEgg's AdFrames rich media units as part of its ad program, …

The recession may have officially ended, but forecasters at Deloitte are predicting a holiday season that is more ho-hum than ho-ho for retailers. While it's still better than last year, Deloitte's retail group expects total holiday sales to climb just 2% to $852 billion this holiday period, excluding motor vehicles and gasoline. (The holiday period is defined as November through January.) Last year, sales edged up just 1% over 2008 figures. Deloitte attributed its subdued forecast to the continuing softness in both housing and employment, which is making consumers reluctant to spend. Adding that any good news—like falling …

Mobile marketer Zoove has named former CBS Interactive executive Joseph Gillespie as its new CEO. As executive vice president at the CBS online unit, Gillespie oversaw CNet.com and the CBSNews.com sites. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Zoove provides dialing codes allowing advertisers to reserve short numerical codes that mobile users can dial for special deals and offers. By dialing the company's StarStar codes for a particular brand, consumers can opt-in for offers via text messages, applications, coupons and other content directly on their mobile phones. With Gillespie's hiring, Zoove Tim Jemison will step down as CEO to become chief …

Mobile ad network Millennial Media Tuesday announced a pair of new management hires: Matt Gillis as senior VP of business development, and Eric Hastings as senior VP of engineering, a newly created position overseeing the company's technology systems. Gillis has more than 15 years experience working in mobile software including at Japanese mobile game company Capcom, while Hastings joins Millennial from AOL's Advertising.com. Millennial also plans to hire another two dozen engineering, operations and sales  employees in its Baltimore and San Francisco offices by year's end to keep pace with revenue and client growth. Staffing at Millennial is …

Advertisers and marketers seem to prefer the original Google search engine. I guess it's a matter of polls. In Mashable's reader poll to determine the preferred Google search engine, Google Instant prevailed over "regular" Google. But a MediaPost reader poll reveals the opposite. Advertisers and marketers prefer the old Google vs. the new. The ongoing Search Marketing Daily poll continues to update tallies, but as of 6:43 A.M. on Tuesday, pacific, the original Google wins with 72.22% vs. Google Instant at 27.78%. The Mashable reader poll puts Google Instant at 50.84% vs. Regular Google at 37.56%, and "No …