A-Rod Juiced but Fellow Players Will Pay

Six sponsors out of today's game, others reviewing plans

(NEWSER) - More tangible fallout from the Penn State scandal: About six sponsors, including Cars.com, have pulled out of today's noon game on ESPN, and other marketers are asking the station not to air their ads anywhere near discussion of the matter. "I have multiple advertisers pulling ads from the ESPN broadcast," one ad buyer tells the Wall Street Journal . More»

Fast food chain to jump on the fresh-and-healthy bandwagon

(NEWSER) - Burger King is planning a radical change in its advertising strategy that will end the surprisingly long reign of its creepy King mascot. The fast food chain is jumping on the trend of touting how fresh its food is—its latest campaign, launching this weekend, advertises its new guacamole-topped “California Whopper” with wordless images of vegetables being washed and chopped, USA Today reports. More»

Baseball's 'nicest guy' joins select club

(NEWSER) - With two home runs last night against the Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twin Jim Thome became the eighth ballplayer ever to hit 600 out of the park. Perhaps most remarkable about this feat is that he achieved it without steroids—unlike many of the other top sluggers of his era, writes Tom Verducci in Sports Illustrated . Indeed, “Gentleman Jim” has “so mastered humility that he has lasted all these years through the thorniest era in baseball history with nary a whiff of controversy or negativity.” More»

Sexist campaign won't boost milk sales, critics say

(NEWSER) - The ad agency behind the famous "Got Milk?" campaign has created a controversial follow-up focusing on premenstrual syndrome—and targeting men. The "Everything I Do Is Wrong" campaign trumpets research suggesting milk reduces PMS symptoms and asks: "Are you a man living with PMS?" Posters with slogans like" I apologize for not reading between the lines" show apologetic men carrying milk cartons, reports the New York Times . More»

Picture talking pill bottles and constant monitoring, writes Alex Poulos

(NEWSER) - If you think ads are inescapable now, just wait a few decades, writes Alex Poulos in the Boston Globe . Future generations will laugh at our primitive tech know-how; the question is “who will laugh last. And I’m afraid it won’t be the consumer,” he writes. Expect ads that are:

• “Intrusive.” The backs of cabs will have scrolling ads, and pill bottles will have audio messages when you open them.