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The article talks about a federal False Claims Act suit filed against American cyclist Lance Armstrong who admitted that he used banned performance-enhancing substances during all of his Tour de France victories. Armstrong's former teammate Floyd Landiss filed the lawsuit accusing Armstrong and other defendants of defrauding the U.S. Postal Service which sponsored Armstrong. The importance of the case in raising questions regarding the scope of the Act is noted.

The article focuses on the new guidelines, issued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to set clearer rules for disclosure in social media influencer campaigns. The guidelines state that bloggers who have received money or "in-kind payment" tied to product reviews must disclose such deals to readers. It is stated that the new rules are the first update the FTC has made to its guide for testaments and endorsements in advertising since 1980.

The article offers information on Buddy Media, one of the six "insurgents" chosen by "Brandweek" magazine's 2010 Creative Agency and Media Agency of the Year award. The three-year-old firm offers tools for brands to manage their pages. With 115 employees and 33 million U.S. dollars in venture capital funding, Buddy Media has a customer base consisting mostly of advertising agencies. The company's chief executive officer is Michael Lazerow.

Provides information on several advertising agencies that are making advancement in interactive advertising campaigns in the U.S. as of February 2005. R/GA; Tribal DDB; Organic; Agency.Com.

The article discusses how the banned Super Bowl strategy that relies on news media and digital culture's obsession with controversy attracts creative agencies. It cites a "Jesus" advertisement adopted by Richard Belfry after Fox rejected his advertisement featuring U.S. President Barack Obama and Jesus bobblehead dolls. It points to an AshleyMadison advertisement featuring a porn actress which was covered by media and had 450,000 views. It suggests that a banned Super Bowl attracts short-term pop in attention and consideration.

The article examines how U.S. patent law is affecting Internet advertising and marketing. Companies and individuals who hold patents on computer software used to create Internet advertising special effects increasingly are suing the advertisers for patent infringement. Financial settlements are usually reached in these actions, but advertising agencies are liable for the costs to their clients.

The article focuses on the use of the Internet by President-elect Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign. It mentions that the Obama campaign had over 1.7 million contributors. It comments on the use of the Internet and social-networking technology in gathering support for Obama's election. It states that the Obama campaign collected millions of cell phone numbers leading up to his selection of Joe Biden as vice president and sent targeted notices to the phones afterward.

The article reports that advertising agency executives are concerned about the proposed Internet advertising agreement between rival Web search engine firms Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the agreement to see if it violates antitrust law. Several advertising executives have spoken to department officials about the deal's impact on their businesses.

The article discusses the growth of advertising engines like Google and search marketing's advancement to a key role in digital marketing. Branding efforts online are expected to grow as the engines move from Web pages to mobile phones and television. The largest search agency in the U.S. is iCrossing, whose sales doubled in 2006.

The article reports that advertising shops specializing in digital media and traditional agencies are engaged in a competition to find and retain employees. Traditional agencies persuade employees to switch employers using strong inroads with clients as a lure. The article presents details about the digital advertising industry.

The article reports that social media Web sites in the United States are facing a slowdown in June 2006. According to the rating agencies ComScore Media Metrix and Nielsen//NetRatings, the visits to the Web sites MySpace and Facebook went slow in June. MySpace was registering 7% monthly growth this year but in June its growth was less than 2%. Similarly, Facebook also witnessed 2% drop of visitors in June. The Web site was registering 3% monthly growth. MySpace now has 93 million members, half of them has been added this year.

The article focuses on U.S. movie studios distributing trailers and other film material across a raft of digital channels. This was done for the approaching summer blockbuster season. Some of these studios are enjoying massive exposure by placing marketing materials on smaller, cutting-edge sites that emphasize on-demand and user-generated content, as well as video sharing. Video-sharing sites have emerged as powerful enablers of fan-powered distribution. The marketing department of Warner Bros. Inc. recorded 27 video journals with director Bryan Singer for the big-budget summer release of the movie "Supermen Returns."

The article reports on the implications of the increase in Internet advertising spending for interactive agencies expanding alongside the medium in the U.S. in 2006. The Interactive Advertising Bureau reported that spending increased by 38% in the first quarter of 2006. However, this increase spotlights the difficulties of finding qualified talents or employers. For instance, R/GA, Tribal DDB, Organic and AKQA, have dozens of openings, after having already expanded their workforce by at least 20% in 2005.

The article reports on JogaTV, a downloadable branded video player that pipes content directly to the desktop, to be launched by Nike Soccer in the U.S. in April 2006. It works in concert with Joga.com that will let users interact with other soccer fans. JogaTV is the latest attempt from Nike to sustain its soccer-based online community.

This article focuses on a strategy being used by several U.S. marketers in which advertisements are linked to Web surfing behavior. According to a survey conducted by Forrester Research, over half of marketers already use behavioral targeting, while another 31 percent intend to start in 2006. While search uses queries as a direct signal of intent, behavioral targeting relies on Internet use to indicate consumer interests. Providers like Revenue Science and New York-based Tacoda are using anonymous audience data to help advertisers run campaigns aimed at users exhibiting certain behaviors. This approach allows the linking of audience data from one group of sites with advertising placements to another.

The article reports on certain developments related to advertising. $2.1 million prize money earned by Nick Schulman, 21-year-old son of New York adman Bob Schulman, by winning the World Poker Tour World Poker Finals at the Foxwoods Resort and Casino last month. Years that the San Francisco Women's Motorcycle Contingent has operated in the Bay Area, using the name "Dykes on Bikes" to promote their not-for-profit activities. Reversing an earlier decision, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has agreed to grant trademark status to the phrase "Dykes on Bikes."

The article reports on the international expansion of Avenue A Inc. Avenue A last week made its long-awaited move outside the U.S. market, kicking off its international expansion with the purchase of London, England-based DNA. By adding the full-service Great Britain shop, which handles both media and creative services, Avenue A hopes to jumpstart a rapid expansion through acquisition in Europe and Asia, helped by a stock price that's tripled in the past year and its $87 million in cash. Avenue A's move highlights one-approach U.S. Web shops are taking to satisfy increasing client demands for global reach.

This article focuses on the new advertisement-search system to be launched by TiVo in the U.S. in 2006. The new system will give television viewers control of when they would like to see television advertising. However, there are qualms if such a system will be effective considering that people use TiVo to escape advertising. The challenge then, according to TiVo CEO Tom Rogers, is to get people comfortable with the idea of using their television to search for product information. On the marketers' side,

The article reports on the new advertisement strategies offered through desktop applications to consumers in the U.S. FilmLoop, which advertisers can use to stream images to consumers opting to receive them, has a goal of 20 million users in a year's time. The Time Warner network would promote the service through its site, e-mails and possibly via banner advertisements across the Web. To target executives, a Best Buy campaign beginning in September 2007 drove users through print and Web advertisements to a Web site that offers a downloadable application that changes the user's desktop wallpaper into a golfing game.

This article reports that while increased Web advertising is causing inventory shortages in a few key categories, such as online video and portal home-page takeovers, many industry executives say ad-space crunches are temporary and point to a plethora of ways to reach consumers online. In high-growth areas like Web video, demand is outstripping supply. And the categories drawing the most online ad spending, such as auto and entertainment, are also experiencing some inventory shortages on prominent sites. For now, ad space shortages are confined to a few areas experiencing explosive growth, such as in-stream video advertising, which is expected to reach $250 million in 2005, up 79 percent from a year earlier, according to Jupiter Research.

The article reports that advertisers are using new Web syndication technology to build advertisements that entice users to interact with real-time news feeds. The BBC plans to break a U.S. advertising campaign that streams BBC.com headlines in advertising units. The Really Simple Syndication (RSS) news feeds are targeted to specific media placements. News sites, which have been early adopters of Web feed syndication, have a ready supply of content to dynamically place in advertising units, but other brands are joining in the hopes of warding off banner blindness and building deeper user engagement. Reuters has worked with NASDAQ and Coca-Cola for campaigns that package RSS feeds of its news stories into advertising units tailored for those brands' audiences.

This article focuses on the increasing interest of media companies in online video advertising in the U.S. With nearly 40 million Americans having broadband connections at home or work, a few advertisers are taking the first steps toward creating Web video advertisement with features that take advantage of the Internet's ability to engage consumers. Honda Motor Co. Ltd.'s Web video advertisement for its Ridgeline truck let users click on parts of the vehicle to see safety features while the Web video runs.

The article reports that the e-mail marketing industry is seeing signs that the nagging problem of spam, which has haunted it for years, is finally improving. Microsoft Corp. claimed a victory last week in its blitz against Scott Richter, the self-described "Spam King." when his e-mail marke ling company, OptinRealBig.com, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection 18 months after Microsoft sued it for allegedly bombarding Hotmail users with spam. OptiriRealBig.com, which plans to continue operating while fighting the lawsuit, cited $46 million in potential legal liability to Microsoft and the financial burden of battling Microsoft as reasons for the reorganization.

The article reports that Google Inc.'s deal last week to buy Web analytics company Urchin Software, along with efforts from Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft to bolster their analytics offerings, promise to further spread the use of customer behavioral data to manage online advertising campaigns. Large e-commerce sites have long used Web analytics software like Web Trends and Coremetrics to better design their sites to appeal to visitors. Now, search providers are allowing big and small advertisers to tap into analytics data to craft their ad campaigns, comparing response rates of different media to determine which offers the best return on investment, and to increase customer conversions on their Web sites.

The article informs that technology firm Hewelett-Packard Co. (HP) will first test its interactive TV (iTV) ads abroad before bringing them to the United States. HP plans to test the TV ad campaign on Great Britain's Sky TV network in May that it expects will reach 7.5 million households. By the end of the year, HP wants to use the technology in the U.S., betting that iTV adoption will accelerate and give advertisers a new way lo engage customers while proving advertising's effect on sales. HP said the ads, still in production, would add a coupon offer to the spots that viewers can access from their remote controls. Viewers click through to an HP screen with demos of the company's camera and printer products, as well as short films.