• Mike Roberts has suddenly and unexpectedly resigned from the post of chief operating officer at McDonald's. It's just the latest in a series of management shifts at the company, some from deaths and some from resignations. The COO slot will now be filled by Ralph Alvarez, who had been president of McDonald's North America.
• Industry watchdog group the Children's Advertising Review Board has taken Warner Bros. to task for advertising the PG-13 rated Superman Returns on Cartoon Network. The group said the movie's themes were a bit much to advertise to the channel's audience. Warner Bros, which also owns Cartoon Network, disagreed with the ruling but will not formally appeal it.
• Fashion title Vogue is launching a new podcast series that seems solely focused on providing long-form outlets for its advertisers. The first installment will feature an interview with Jeremy Piven of "Entourage" as well a new series of Gap ads. Future shows will likewise feature famous people who are appearing in advertisements. This isn't co-branding so much as it is just fluffing the ad buyers.
  

IT Conversations has launched an eBay auction for advertising space within the popular TechNation podcast. You've got nine days or so to put in a bid, the starting price of which is $12,000. That - or whatever the winning bid winds up being - gets you the right to be one of three sponsors of at least ten episodes of the show. The spots, which must not exceed 15 seconds in length, will be read by host Dr. Moira Gunn at the beginning and end of each show. Tech Nation's talent is willing to help the winning advertiser refine the copy so that it achieves the goals of both parties. The winner will also get clickable banner-ad placement on the show notes page.

This follows Rocketboom's foray into auctioning off ad space on the popular video podcast, a move that was successful both for the Rocketboom team's bank account but also in terms of creating a unique and engaging ad.

• NBC executive Alan Wurtzel has told a group of ad agency representatives that his research shows ad effectiveness has dropped more in houses without DVRs than in those with the machines. His logic seems kind of flawed to me and is fueled more wanting to underplay the impact DVRs are having on ad watching.
• Disney will begin offering podcasts through its Radio Disney website aimed at kids using their MP3 players. The ad-supported downloads will be original content created to target the kindergarten to junior-high set.
• More kids targeting this morning. Microsoft will be marketing their new XBOX 360 game "Viva Pinata", which hits stores in the winter, with an original cartoon series airing this fall on Fox. In what has to be the greatest stretch of the word ever, those involved in the two properties call the timing of the show and the game "coincidental." 

eMarketer has released a study showing the audience for podcasts is likely to hit 25 million by 2008 and 50 million in 2010. That's going to be good news for companies who have already explored or are considering exploring advertising in podcasts since it means the audience will grow exponentially. Spending on advertising within podcasts is expected to pace that, coming in at $150 million in 2008 and $300 million in 2010.

Now I'd be careful before putting too much weight behind this study, and here's why. First off, if someone had said "podcast" to me two years ago I would have wondered what exactly they had been drinking. This is still a very new form of media and while it's growing I think we're barely out of the "early adopter" phase. Secondly, there's no guarantee that the audio shows will continue to be free as they are now. I'm just saying the possibility exists there could be a paradigm shift somewhere along the line that changes who we consume these things, assuming such a format still exists.

There are good reasons to get on the podcast advertising train. But with things changing as fast as they have been in the last five years I'd be careful before betting the farm on any one format.