Suzanne Vranica

The world's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores, and Procter & Gamble, the world's biggest consumer-products maker, are jointly creating a made-for-TV movie, in an effort to promote "family-friendly" alternatives to what they say is increasingly risqué TV fare.

Advertisers believe that the longer they can keep viewers engaged with an ad, the more likely they are to buy.

As Comcast gets close to a deal for control of General Electric's NBC Universal, the big cable operator and Madison Avenue think the merger could lead to some major changes in the $65 billion U.S. television-advertising market.

With ad spending still in the doldrums, NBC Universal has won some extra business by offering marketers the chance to hitch their products to programs promoting a cause or health or social issue.

Google is teaming up with Visible World, a well-known New York technology company that uses software to create multiple versions of a given ad, in its push to offer TV advertisers more targeting options.

Local television stations, suffering from steep declines in ad spending, are getting a much-needed shot in the arm from lobbying groups trying to sway the national debate over health care.

The Pool, which includes six media companies and several marketers, such as Allstate, Capital One Financial and DineEquity's Applebee's, will test five online ad formats. The two highest-scoring ad formats will be put into beta testing on the media companies' sites.

Economic anxiety may be seeping into some of the more insulated parts of the media world, including national advertising on US cable- and broadcast-television networks. In a bad sign for the media sector's third-quarter earnings, both Viacom Inc.

Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) appears to many people to be running a far more tech-wise campaign than his opponent, with his use of text messages to announce his vice-presidential candidate and the creation of his own vibrant social network, My.BarackObama.com.

Federal regulators are beginning an effort to crack down on stealth advertising in television shows, a move aimed at letting consumers know when companies have paid to use their products as props.