iCountry Media

LONDON (AdAge.com) -- What kind of brand would want to associate with Chatroulette? Well, French Connection -- of FCUK fame -- would, and the U.K.-based clothing retailer is using the random, anonymous chat room for a marketing push.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Seven months after an initial blitz of advertising surrounding the health-care reform bill, various parties are at it again in response to President Barack Obama's push to have the Senate version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives before Easter on April 4.

Maybe things haven't changed that much at all. Maybe what's missing in our "social" marketing transformation is the really boring and basic stuff. Maybe dull drives digital. Maybe fundamentals face us forward. Maybe boring is breakthrough.

Maybe things haven't changed that much at all. Maybe what's missing in our "social" marketing transformation is the really boring and basic stuff. Maybe dull drives digital. Maybe fundamentals face us forward. Maybe boring is breakthrough.

China Central Television's Lunar New Year extravaganza may not be the the world's most sophisticated variety show, but it is probably the biggest, with over 730 million viewers.

MRI Starch Communications looked at which 2009 consumer print ads caught the attention of young men and women. Our slideshow of print ads that had the most "stopping power" among young men and women reveals there are some differences, as you might expect, but when it comes to a crisp glass of imported beer, or a close-up of a flatbread melt, apparently we aren't so different after all.

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Dora the Explorer, Nickelodeon's cartoon preschool heroine, is turning 10 -- or should we say, diez? -- and has a host of marketing partners to help her celebrate, from State Farm to the U.S. Census.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- YouTube has spent the past year putting ads in every corner of the site, from big, splashy homepage ads to pre-roll, post-roll and overlays on video. But one aspect has remained curiously ad-free: its mobile site.

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Hilton Hotels has placed its creative advertising account in review, a spokesman said.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- As the beverage industry comes under assault with proposed sugar taxes in several parts of the county, normally fierce rivals Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Dr Pepper Snapple Group have begun running print and TV ads touting their joint initiative to remove full-calorie soft drinks from schools across the country.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Looks as if someone else may have their knickers in a twist over the way two Super Bowl commercials featuring pantsless actors were aired back to back during the game.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The $100 million lawsuit pop-tart Lindsay Lohan filed against E-Trade Financial Corp. this week over a 30-second Super Bowl spot from its agency Grey, New York, appears to have been a crowdsourced effort by friends and random fans of Ms. Lohan on Twitter.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Pharma giant Pfizer has consolidated under Carat all of its media buying for Wyeth DTC brands, industry executives say. The additional business was previously handled in-house by the Wyeth division and is estimated to be worth some $250 million in billings.

Marketers and agencies may at last surrender to the inevitable logic in having women not just create, but manage the development of conversations with other women.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Apple went big on TV for the new iPad with multiple spots during the Oscars telecast, but don't expect "Meet iPad" to do huge numbers on the web.

You can depend on facing a major product crisis. The only question is when. Analyze how your business is operationally configured to identify emerging crises and gather resources to respond to them meaningfully and quickly.

Anita Puri has joined Digitas as senior VP-marketing for the Kraft account.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Activision Blizzard has yanked creative duties for its "Guitar Hero" franchise from MDC Partners' Crispin Porter & Bogusky, tapping Omnicom Group's TBWA/Chiat/Day to market the games going forward.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Looks as if the big Oscars gambit paid off: ABC today said last night's broadcast of the 82nd annual Academy Awards, replete with an expanded 10-nominee slate for Best Picture, notched the event's highest audience since 2005.

The trend lines on tweets that name-check the Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Film nominees basically go from flat line to huge spike to flat line again. One exception: Sandra Bullock.