• Blogging Stocks says that former New York mayor (and likely 2008 Presidential candidate) Rudy Gulliani has been hired by Circuit City to promote their Firedog home electronics expertise practice.
  
• The guys at BS (heh) are also talking about how CNBC's Jim Cramer is hot on an outdoor advertising firm that is well positioned with new media technologies. Of course Cramer also likes very old-media companies as well.
  
• Joystiq let's out a tremendous "well duh!" over an article that says games like Halo 3 are going to be big sellers. They also mention that even games set in the distant past can get in-game ad dollars - it just requires a bit of creative thinking.
• PVR Wire passes on an early rejected ad from TiVo that mocks the very idea of network programmers still having control over TV watching schedules. PVW is also giving us more details on TiVo's "program placement" product and passes along the discontent they and other people are feeling over Comcast putting ads on their program guide.
  

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• The idea of counting only "live" data is dead. All parties seemed to agree that "live plus two or three days" is going to offer the best set of data that both buyers and sellers can live with. This gives buyers a small enough window that their finely-timed campaigns can still be gaged for effectiveness but a big enough window that network sellers don't wind up throwing themselves out a window.
• Nielsen will provide raw data to both agencies and networks so that they can figure out for themselves what information to use to create minute-by-minute ratings. This seems like a bit of Nielsen saying "Look, the two of you fight it out and we'll provide the weaponry" but maybe that's just me. Unfortunately this will start just a few weeks before the next upfronts so that probably won't be enough time for a common currency to be agreed upon. That has some buyers honked off.
  
• 40 percent of TV viewing is now being done via some sort of time-shifting, a much larger percentage then had previously been thought. That means that if the networks had once again caved and accepted rates based only on "live" data they would have lost about $600 million in 2007, which is getting up towards some serious money.

• Slashfood is creeped out by an Xbox game from Burger King that features The King sneaking around forcing hamburgers down the throats of passers-by.
• Sony, according to TUAW, has co-opted Apple's "Mac Vs. PC" style and added a third character, the Vaio, in an effort to differentiate itself from the rest of the personal computing market.
• Joystiq raises a couple of issues with the latest ad from Circuit City promoting the Playstation 3.
• Joystiq also puts in their two cents on the Double Fusion/Take Two ad placement deal.
  
• Our friends at PVR Wire are pointing out how TiVo, by adding more and more advertising to the user experience, is actually drifting away from the whole point behind people's purchase of a TiVo.
• Break.com and their plan to pay people for short films gets some press on DVGuru.
• TV Squad mentions Comedy Central has picked up the animated series "L'il Bush." The concept started out as a series of shorts produced by Amp'd Mobile.
• Also at TV Squad comes word that the soap opera "Days of Our Lives" will be holding a contest asking viewers to name the baby of a main character.
• According to Blogging Stocks, KISS guitarist Paul Stanley is selling signature guitars at Target.
• Blogging Baby weighs in on the issue of pediatricians calling for a ban on fast-food advertising to kids.

• Slashfood explores 2007's likely food trends, including a heavy emphasis on the marketing of foods whose ingredients come from the Amazon region and other such exotic locales.
• An ad for the PSP game system popped up on MarthaStewart.com and PSP Fanboy has a screengrab along with with comments about how Sony's marketing the item to moms.
• Blogging Baby points out that rapper 50 Cent has a problem with guns being OK on the posters for every movie but his own.
• TV Squad talks about the old sitcom "Bosom Buddies," with Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari playing two cross-dressing advertising execs, coming to DVD.
• The growing rise of advergames by companies is touched on by our friends at Joystiq.
• PVR Wire has a ton of good posts up, including a YouTube channel of TiVo promos, this note on Charter Communication's new VOD advertising program, a study showing that DVRs won't mean the end of TV commercials, an ad from Radio Shack for a Series 2 TiVo and a DirecTV ad from Uruguay.
• Styledash wonders just how much of the excitement over the "right-hand ring" is due to consumer demand or marketing hype.

• It's good advice that Euro RSCG CEO David Jones was dispensing, but I think he was going about it the wrong way. Jones said that creative types just need to get on with being creative and stop worrying about consumer research. He says marketers need to think of themselves as content creators and not marketers, but I don't think that's quite right. You're very much still marketers, but that's the content you're creating.
  
• Les Moonves thinks that next year he and other network owners are going to start getting paid by advertisers for commercials watched by DVR viewers. I'm going to not comment because my mother told me to not say anything if I couldn't say something nice.
• The NFL is about to break the first spot in the campaign encouraging people to create their own Super Bowl commercial. Yay?

• Vladimir Cole at Joystiq lists some reasons for the lack of advertising on the facade of the Makuhari convention center in Tokyo on the eve of a major gaming conference. He lists reasons from general ineffectiveness to being seen as not worth the effort as the motives for the lack of ads.
• Joystiq's Zack Stern talks about a cool cross-platform adventure/mystery that's designed to promote both the TV show component as well as a video game to play. The two media interact and add detail to each other in an interesting way, making sure that people who are doing both get the richest experience.
• Next Medium is a sort of Match.com for media producers to list spots for potential product placement that can then be searched by marketers and PVR Wire's Chris Tew has the details.
• Tew also mentions a new tactic Sony is using to try and foil DVR ad-skipping. To promote their new Bravia television set in the U.K., the company is creating alternate endings to a commercial, one geared toward men and another toward women.