NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Will American consumers leap at the idea of water bottle as fashion accessory, granting it a cache similar to that of an iPod? California companies Kor Water the RKS design believe they will and have spent three years re-inventing the lowly water bottle as a "personal hydration vessel." The sleek Kor One was launched last week after months of being the new darling of the design-oriented blogosphere. Kor CEO Eric Barnes explains his marketing strategy for the new product.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Strapped for cash, New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority is now selling advertising space on the exterior of its subway cars. The first buyer is the History Channel which has festooned strings of transit vehicles with promotional messages for the third season of its hit series, "Cities of the Underworld." The MTA estimates the new rolling advertising space will bring in a million dollars more a month. It's offering advertising space on its turnstiles as well.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Despite all the success it has achieved during the last five years, the behavioral targeting business has been plagued by its lack of universally-accepted standards. In a move to alter that, 240 technology, media and marketing companies have signed on to the newly-created Behavioral Targeting Standards Consortium (BTSC). It's advisory committee includes representatives of Revenue Science, Microsoft, Jupiter Research, Barry Diller's Expedia and Hachette Filipacchi's Jumpstart Automotive Media. Interviewed in this program is Revenue Science CEO Jeffrey Hirsch, the new group's chairman.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- A marketing research system that studies the emotions expressed by facial muscles has been used to analyze Presidential campaign ads. The system is the subject of the new book, "Face Time," by Dan Hill. Mr. Hill heads Sensory Logic, a consulting firm that has been using "facial coding" methods to study second-by-second consumer reaction to TV commercials. Its clients are normally large marketing corporations. But during the primaries, the company began analyzing audience reaactions to the major candidates' ads.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In late 2006, in response to a challenge from Esquire magazine, David Droga came up with the idea of branding tap water to raise money for UNICEF. Called the Tap Project, it at first involved 300 New York City restaurants which asked patrons to pay a dollar for their tap water. The program then went national and, next year, will go global. Last week, the Advertising Club of New York honored Droga for his work.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The $52 billion acquisition deal that will make Anheuser-Busch part of the Belgium-Brazilian company InBev has a lot of people wondering about their beer. What happens to iconic U.S. brands like Budweiser once Anheuser-Busch is no longer a U.S. company? VP for Brand Management Keith Levy admits there are fears about change and that Budweiser's new advertising campaigns are being carefully tailored to address those concerns.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- What a difference two years can make. At the first New York City Council Civil Rights Committee hearing on ad agency diversity hiring practices in 2006, no agency executives deigned to show up. But at the second hearing this week, no less than the new 4As president Nancy Hill led a supplicant coterie of top agency officials into the Council chambers. Their public interaction with Committee Chairman Larry Seabrook was a sweet and sour affair that mirrored the contentious history of the issue.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In a celebration that was as much about architecture as it was about marketing, JetBlue cut the ribbon on Monday at its new, $740 million dollar, 72-acre terminal at New York's JFK Airport. Branded "JetBlue T5," it's the first new terminal built in the U.S. since 9/11. In erecting its futuristic, 26-gate hub alongside TWA's landmark Saarinen terminal, JetBlue is hoping to inject some glamour back into flying.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The fifth annual Advertising Week in New York and the opening session of the United Nations' General Assembly intertwined for a short while on Monday morning. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon invited a small group of the ad industry's top executives to UN headquarters for a chat. He wants the world's largest advertising holding companies to assist the UN in mounting a sustained advertising campaign about the dangers of global warming.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Improv Everywhere, a flash mob organization whose dramatic events have drawn high profile attention in New York, has signed its first commercial partnership -- with Yahoo. In one of its happenings earlier this year, more than 200 members of the art group infiltrated rush hour commuter crowds in Grand Central Terminal. And then at precisely the same instant, all 200 froze -- like statues -- for five minutes. As part of the Yahoo sponsorhip deal, Improv Everywhere will be organizing Fall happenings in New York, Toronto, Chicago and San Francisco.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It's a curious fact that in all of its 130 years of operation as a beer giant, the Budweiser brand has never nationally marketed an ale. That changed this week as it rolled out its new Budweiser American Ale brand. Anheuser-Busch VP for Brand Management Keith Levy explains why the brewer believes now is the time to move into a market niche it has long ignored.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- America's most powerful buying block is women but today's designers continue to create products aimed at male sensitivities. And that means a lot of female-unfriendly products aren't achieving their full market potential, says Marti Barletta. The author, marketing consultant and CEO of Chicago's TrendSight Group, was a keynote speaker at last week's annual conference of the Industrial Designers Society of America. Addressing a predominantly male audience, she ticked off a list of what ticks off women.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Among the most interesting new technology that promises to dramatically alter the outdoor video advertising business is real-time facial recognition systems. With a scanning device installed on every video screen, they send a constant stream of data back to a central computer. Each unit can "read" passing faces to determine which are actually looking at the ads on that specific screen. They can also estimate the age, sex and level of interest of onlookers. And the systems can provide second-by-second data reports, something like outdoor advertising's version of TV's commercial ratings.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Bonnie Fuller, queen of the celebrity gossip magazine niche, recently left her position at American Media to start her own company. In the interim, she's also been writing freelance for both Ad Age and The Huffington Post. In this seven-minute video program, she chats about her rising interest in the millennial women demographic, which, she says, will play an important role in her new business.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Do the creatives at your ad agency really understand mobile phone advertising? While all emerging digital media have their complexities, mobile phone communicaitons can be unusually complicated because of the tangle of incompatible device sizes, proprietary standards and lengthy procedural requirements of all the different carriers. At the same time, the internal logistics of some agencies may effectively prevent creatives from acquiring the most basic materials and information needed to produce effective mobile ad campaigns.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In an unusual cross-promotion that has literally created a house of branded entertainment, Showtime and Metropolitcan Home Magazine teamed up for a designer showcase makeover in a New York brownstone. Each room of the project takes its inspiration from one of six Showtime shows. The show home will be open to the public and the project was filmed to become its own TV program. At the same time, it will also be featured on both media companies' websites.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In its continuing struggle to revitalize the brand and re-ignite sales, Sears is putting new emphasis on its connection to high fashion. For the last four years, it maintained a low-key, peripheral marketing presence at New York Fashion Week in Bryant Park. But this year, the retailer kicked out the jams with its own large expo tent and extensive product line displays. Ad Age retail reporter Natalie Zmuda takes us on a video tour.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Fox's new "Fringe" is a mainstream hit with media buyers. The show, which debuted this week, is a grand serial epic in the tradition of "Lost." It combines large helpings of weird science and wild conspiracy theory with serious FBI work and sexy drama to create an action thriller. Ad Age television editor Brian Steinberg says media buyers are closely watching audience reaction because of Fox's special clutter-busting ad-sales strategy for the show.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Newsstands have never seen anything like Esquire's October edition. Its cover blinks. Meanwhile, its inside cover also features a blinking Ford ad. The digital enhancements are all a part of the Hearst publication's 75th anniversary as well as its attempt to pioneer a new magazine publishing concept. 100,000 of the battery-powered covers were hand-assembled by work crews in China and Mexico. Ad Age visited the Essex, Connecticut, company that managed those global production logistics.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The fact that major TV networks already provide ad agency-like services to clients is a subject of no small concern for the advertising agency business. But the subject is rarely discussed openly. Which is what made author Brian Reich's remarks at a recent New York MIEG breakfast so interesting. He argued that marketers as well as consumers would be better served if TV networks took over the full functions of advertising agencies.

NEW YORK (YouTube.com/AdAge) -- The stars of "Entourage" and Virgin chief Richard Branson dueled each other with champagne spray on Friday as they celebrated the co-marketing of a new flight route and a new season of shows. The hit HBO series and airline company co-hosted a splashy PR event in a private hanger at JFK airport. A Virgin plane was repainted as "Entourage Air" for a month of the new flight service from JFK to Las Vegas. The event also marked the first time that the season opener of a major TV series was premiered in-flight.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The stars of "Entourage" and Virgin chief Richard Branson dueled each other with champagne spray on Friday as they celebrated the co-marketing of a new flight route and a new season of shows. The hit HBO series and airline company co-hosted a splashy PR event in a private hanger at JFK airport. A Virgin plane was repainted as "Entourage Airline" for the evening's flight from JFK to Las Vegas. The event also marked the first time that the season opener of a major TV series was premiered in-flight.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- A three-year-old apparel shop in New York's SoHo district is using history stories as a primary fashion marketing tool. Called Operations, the shop is cited by Brand Experience Lab chairman David Polinchock as one of the better examples of a retailer that has successfully infused both its in-store environment as well as its product lines with a rare and engaging sense of authenticity. The staff at Operations is regularly trained in the historical story lines related to every product.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- For all its success is spreading networks of screens throughout the public venues of American cities, the outdoor video advertising business is still struggling with the audience measurement issue. Less 20 months ago, the major video network companies formed the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB). It's first priority was to develop a credible metrics system. That crash program hopes to release new guidelines later this year.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In an event likely to dramatically alter its business, the outdoor advertising industry begins the preliminary rollout of new audience measurement protocols this month. In development for four years, the new "Eyes On" system uses complex computer modeling and eye-tracking technology to determine how many people actually look at billboards throughout 200 U.S. markets.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The United States Tennis Association is drawing millions of fans to the U.S. Open this year who won?t step foot in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Instead, they will log on to usopen.com, a Web site developed by IBM, post comments to the site?s ?Fanbook,? and download a widget that sends real-time scores to their desktops. The Web site?s interactive tools have given the USTA brand a global reach.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- "The Dark Knight" may have been the king of summer blockbusters, but Burger King ruled the summer kids' meal tie-ins. The chain promoted "Iron Man," "Incredible Hulk" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," and credited the partnerships for its impressive same-store sales this summer. McDonald’s, meanwhile, focused on a “Kung Fu Panda” promotion, building on the success of its “Shrek the Third” promotion last summer.

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 Web site, unsnobby.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.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Big retailers can learn a lot from niche operations when it comes to in-store branding. In this special report, Ad Age retail reporter Natalie Zmuda takes a tour of niche retailers in New York's Soho shopping district with David Pollinchock of the Brand Experience Lab. From the expert staff at the Burton Board Store to the curated jeans at Diesel Denim Gallery, the pair discovers how retailers can make their stores their best advertisement.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In a move that pits the cable network against the broadcast giants, TNT is launching a new original prime-time show next week. "Raising the Bar" is a Steve Bochco crime and justice drama set in the New York public defender's office. Media buyers are worried about the show's chances against the broadcast competition. And Ad Age television editor Brian Steinberg notes that the pilot itself has a number of worrisome flaws.