CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- In a PR masterstroke, Kellogg Co. managed to spoil an every-four-year tradition for General Mills -- the unveiling of Olympians to grace the Wheaties box. By the time Big G made its big announcement today, Kellogg had already one-upped the news by revealing that it signed the biggest of them all, Michael Phelps.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Following a quiet pitch, Amazon.com has chosen Southfield, Mich.-based independent shop Doner to devise new ways to market the e-commerce brand, executives familiar with the matter said.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It isn't only Michael Phelps who is attracting the eye of sponsors. His mom is in demand, too.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Struggling with its identity as of late, Old Navy is shopping around for a hot creative agency to help handle its $200 million marketing account, executives familiar with the matter said.

Fiat launched its new Bravo in Turkey with a series of extraordinary executions to catch consumers by surprise.

ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE — Barack Obama may be the belle of the ball at Denver’s Democratic National convention, but Michael Phelps now rules the roost on Facebook. With more than 1 million supporters (now up to 1,401,473), Obama has had more “Fans” than any person on Facebook for months. Last Friday, though, after an array of stunning, record-breaking gold-medal performances, Phelps surged past Obama and every other celebrity on Facebook. By the time this article is printed, he will probably break the 1.5 million mark. Of the athletes most highly regarded on Facebook, Phelps fits in, as the most popular athletes on [...]

ADOTAS – Has the notoriously technically clueless McCain trumped Obama … online? Obama, the Facebook, text and online fund-raising maven is getting a run for his money from McCain, who’s adopted search marketing as a way to reach out to undecided voters and lure them to his camp. A report in The Wall Street Journal analyzes what it characterizes as McCain’s ambush ad tactic: “As of Wednesday, a Google search for ‘Joe Biden’ or even just ‘Biden’” resulted in a prominently displayed ad labeled ‘Joe Biden on Obama’ that links to Sen. McCain’s site. There, a video begins playing that shows Sen. [...]

Let's cut right to the chase today, shall we? "The Shield" is by a continent-wide margin the best cop/detective show currently on television. Come with me, then, as I lapse into fanboy mode and attempt to articulate, using words like "awesome" and "unreal" and "super-amazing," why fans of "Deadwood," "Chinatown" and "The Departed" ought to treat themselves to a belated introduction to "The Shield."

ADOTAS – WPP Digital has brought Neal Prescott on board to run its new production services unit called Deliver. (The unit will work with all of WPP’s digital properties). Prior to landing the CEO gig at Deliver, Prescott was at Digitas, most recently as EVP and global head of tech enablement. Online radio station Pandora Media has hired Priscilla Valls as its senior advertising sales manager for their New York office. Previously, Valls was the advertising sales director for Answers Corporation, a company in the social knowledge space. addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adotas.com%2F2008%2F08%2Fhires-round-up-wpp-pandora%2F'; addthis_title = 'Hires+Round-Up%3A+WPP%2C+Pandora+'; [...]

ADOTAS – Cisco Systems Inc. has snagged email/calendaring/app specialist PostPath for $215 million, in a move to compete with Microsoft. PostPath sells a Linux-based e-mail serviced to companies and competes with the likes of Zimbra (Yahoo snagged that company last year for $350 million). PostPath will be folded into Cisco’s WebEx Connect platform (which Cisco bought for $3.2 billion in 2007). WebEx essentially helps companies hold meetings online. addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adotas.com%2F2008%2F08%2Fcisco-expands-biz-app-portfolio-with-postpath-buy%2F'; addthis_title = 'Cisco+Expands+Biz-App+Portfolio+With+PostPath+Buy'; addthis_pub = 'adotas';

ADOTAS – He’s not dead after all! Bloomberg News decided to update the Apple chief’s obituary yesterday (probably due to rumors of his ill-health) and accidentally published it – all 17 pages of it. Whoops! It hit the wire, disappeared and then a retraction was sent out. Gawker has the whole sordid story (and the full obit) here. The retraction: Story Referencing Apple Was Sent in Error by Bloomberg News Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) — An incomplete story referencing Apple Inc. was inadvertently published by Bloomberg News at 4:27 p.m. New York time today. The item was never meant for publication and has been retracted. The obit begins: “Steve Jobs, [...]

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) – While Starbucks has cut jobs and stores this year, McDonald's has been launching regional marketing to roll out its new specialty coffee drinks. In Seattle, the chain zeros in on coffee aficionados with its website, unsnobbycoffee.com. There, users can stage an intervention for friends who are "addicted to snobby iced espresso." As Ad Age food reporter Emily Bryson York explains, it might take more than savings for McDonald's to convert Seattle's java elite.

ADOTAS – Video sites around the country are likely busting open the bubbly at the news that Veoh won its copyright case against adult video producer Io Group. A federal judge in San Jose, California, ruled that the video-sharing site was not liable for copyrighted material from the porn producer that users uploaded to Veoh’s site. A provision of DMCA copyright law, called safe harbor, freed Veoh from any legal obligation to copyright holders since it removed from its site any copyrighted video as soon as it was alerted of any infringement, the judge ruled. (Under the provision. sites are not [...]

ADOTAS – SpeedDate, an online dating destination, raised $6 million in a Series B round of financing, according to TechCrunch. Menlo Ventures led the round. How SpeedDate works: the site provides users with a several 3-minute dates conducted via video, audio and chat. If the date is considered a success by both parties, they keep in touch through the site until they’re ready to meet in person. The site boasts about 100,000 dates a day. addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adotas.com%2F2008%2F08%2Fspeeddate-reels-in-6m%2F'; addthis_title = 'SpeedDate+Reels+in+%246M'; addthis_pub = 'adotas';

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Among the usual throngs crowding onto those double-decker buses that ferry tourists around the Big Apple, two not-so-usual suspects hopped aboard Wednesday: Rachael Ray and Ed McMahon. It was all part of a segment on Ms. Ray's program cooked up with the company that runs those red buses, Gray Line New York Sightseeing, which gladly makes the buses available for film and TV appearances.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- German research firm GfK on Wednesday dropped its bid to acquire Taylor Nelson Sofres, paving the way for WPP Group to acquire the London-based market research giant. But there may be more sparring ahead, as TNS said it still wants nothing to do with WPP's $2.2 billion takeover bid filed earlier this month.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Attention, advertisers who want an early glimpse at characters like Brenda Walsh and Kelly Taylor: You can get a sense of what's going to be included in the CW's "90210" remake, despite reports to the contrary.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Statistical data suggests the black community has been left behind on the road to healthier-food marketing. That's according to an article in the American Journal of Public Health, which examined marketing and advertising studies conducted between 1992 and 2006 and looked at foods and beverages marketed to blacks vs. whites.

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- Here's some viral marketing you might not have expected during the election: A startup pharmaceutical company is looking to get mileage from Denver Police buying its product to guard against any hazardous bodily fluids that might emerge during the Democratic National Convention.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Lifetime Networks today announced its purchase of ParentsClick Network, a privately held social-networking and digital-media-technology company. The acquisition is the first for the female-focused cable network in the digital field. The value of the acquisition was not disclosed.