We're all 'Mad Men' here

Agencies and Marketing Execs:

• Bizo's hired John Whitmore for Director-Sales.
• Pelco named Herve Fages director of global marketing.
• True Media has acquired Search Driven Technologies, based in St. Louis.
• Whittmanhart/NY will be developing iloveny.com, the official New York State tourism website, for Saatchi & Saatchi and the Dept. of Economic Development.

Biz Buzz:

• Here's news you probably already knew: the biggest spenders generate the most buzz.
• IAC reverses year-earlier loss.
• AOL ad sales are sliding.

Campaigns of Note:

• Contributing to a perennial avatar craze, AMC now lets online users 'Mad Men' themselves. After creating a self-portrait in the animated likeness of a Mad Men character, users have the option to download the image for their desktops, social networks and mobile phones.

Legal, Government and Regulation:

• After winning a legal battle, Apple is now free to promote the App Store as the only such option for its iPhone.

Opinion:

• Ad markets are growing more stable, according to CEO Jeff Bewkes of Time Warner. He admits, however, "we aren't seeing any major improvements."

Search:

• Ask is purportedly running an anonymous, anti-Google "Information Revolution" outdoor campaign in subway stations and the like. Problem is, information about the campaign has been incorporated into its search results when users run a query for "Google." Foul play.

• Chris Michaels of Fusion LA produced a series of guidelines on dipping into social media for branding purposes.
• The British government has issued an internal strategy document for best using Twitter.
• Twitter redesigned its front page to place more emphasis on search and trending topics.

User Experience:

• Witness while tech women break the digital divide.
• Online user reviews suffer increasing scrutiny.