Pepsi Partners With Michael Jackson Estate for Commemorative Packaging — Limited-Edition Package Coincides With 25th Anniversary of ‘Bad’

By Natalie ZmudaAdvertising Age Pepsi is paying homage to the King of Pop one more time. The brand is working with Michael Jackson’s estate to create a limited edition package featuring the singer, according to an executive close to the…

March Madness Digital Viewing Generates $60 Million in Ad Sales for Turner, CBS — Total Doesn’t Include Subscriptions for Mobile Access

By Jason Del ReyAdvertising Age It’s not a revenue number that’s going to convince many that a long-awaited reallocation of TV dollars to digital has arrived. But the approximately $60 million that sources say Turner and CBSSports.com brought in for…

Variety for Sale Again — Reed Elsevier Failed to Find Buyer at Right Price in 2008

By Nat IvesAdvertising Age Reed Elsevier, the publisher of "Gray’s Anatomy" textbook and the LexisNexis database, said Friday that it has put Variety magazine up for sale again. The London-based company put Variety and a host of other titles on…

Social TV Buzz Doubles Year over Year

Q&A: ‘Mad Men’ Actor Vincent Kartheiser Is Nothing Like His Character Pete Campbell — Supports Jon Hamm in Kardashian Critique, Doesn’t Use ‘The Facebook’

By Rupal ParekhAdvertising Age Unlike Pete Campbell, the character he plays on "Mad Men," 32-year-old Vincent Kartheiser’s even younger-looking-in-person face is covered in a beard. His hair is not slicked back, but flopping down into his face, and he’s sans…

Nickelodeon Pitches Twice the New Programming Hours Amid Ratings Decline — Network Developing Projects for Brit Boy Band One Direction, ‘X Factor’ Singer Rachel Crow

By Jeanine Poggi BioAdvertising Age Nickelodeon used its upfront presentation to tout 650 hours of new programming, more than double the amount it presented last year, as it sought to counter a ratings decline and charges that its lineup has…

It’s the $200 Million Question. That’s the Amount of Money Cable MSOs Spent on Canoe, Their Venture That Was Supposed to Revolutionize Advertising. Instead, It Crashed and Burned. Why?

TVWeek has conducted an in-depth analysis about Canoe to find out what happened.Please click here to read this insightful story.

Hallmark Upfront Report: ‘Movie Pilots’ Move Network Toward Scripted Series — Daytime Block Gets Marketer-Friendly ‘Home & Family’

Hallmark Channel is looking into producing its first original scripted series, using two TV movies based on popular novels as potential springboards, parent Crown Media said at the network’s upfront presentation to media buyers in New York on Wednesday. Hallmark…

SXSW Human Hotspots Miss the Mark, Says Editor of Philly Homeless Paper

By Matt CreamerAdvertising Age Probably the biggest story out of South by Southwest so far is a controversial charitable program that turned some of Austin’s homeless people into living, breathing wireless hotspots. In exchange for helping the ceaseless chatter from…

Ford Creates Prime-Time NBC Reality Series to Launch New Escape — NBC Keeps All the Revenue From Other Advertisers

By Stephen WilliamsAdvertising Age Ford Motor Co. has created six episodes of an hour-long reality show called "Escape Routes" that will run on NBC beginning later this month to promote Ford’s redesigned Escape. Rather than buying the time from NBC,…