Obama/Palin disco elves

Ad Networks and Analytics:

• DriverTV launched a content and ad network for publishers and advertisers focused on automobile-based content.
• Zip-code-based content serving firm Topix has expanded ad options. It now sports content deals with Marchex, ServiceMagic and Lat49, plus a pending liaison with MapQuest.

Agencies and Marketing Execs:

• For those that haven't yet heard — Jerry Yang dethrones at Yahoo.
• Aaron Strout joins social marketing firm Powered as VP of Marketing.
• BBDO hast lost the Pepsi account to TBWA/CHIAT/DAY. The former managed Pepsi's image for nearly 50 years.
• Tony Ponturo, VP-global media and sports marketing at Anheuser-Busch, has retired.

Campaigns of Note:

• For the third consecutive year, OfficeMax brings back Elf Yourself, a holiday effort that lets users digitally stitch their heads to the bodies of dancing elves. Now the elves are themed (disco, country, Charleston, classic) and customized merch can be purchased, courtesy of a liaison with JibJab. There are also social networking features: the ability to save profiles, or embed elves elsewhere.
• Newspaper giant Gannett looks to social media to enhance its core operation. The firm purchased Ripple6, which powers social content sites like Gannett's MomsLikeMe network.

Legal, Government and Regulation:

• What are the pitfalls of verifying the ages of children in the digital age?
• Where the online ad industry is concerned, self-regulation is preferred, the United Kingdom decides.
• Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban has been charged with insider trading.

Mobile:

• Online reservation site OpenTable launched an iPhone app that enables users to search for local restaurants and make reservations without having to place a call.
• Air2Web launched Brand Asset Download, which empowers clients to deliver images and audio content to thousands of US-based mobile units at once.
• VideoEgg is expanding its AdFrames services to mobile devices. Marketers can use it to run ads on iPhone apps and webpages.
• One-third of Europeans are reportedly interested in mobile marketing.

Music:

• To promote Beyonce's latest album, AOL Music is debuting an AOL Music Sessions segment tonight, featuring the diva.

Opinion:

• Cultural critic Virginia Postrel weighs in on the power of glamour — defined as a "calculated, carefully calculated image designed to impress and persuade."
• Procter & Gamble's GM-interactive marketing and innovation Ted McConnell doesn't think advertisers should butt in on social media "conversations." Still, applications hold promise, he said.
• Citi internet analyst Mark Mahaney says display advertising is declining faster than previous forecasts claimed.
• Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson bashes the music industry for crippling consumers' natural inclination to fileshare and move audio technology forward.

Publishing:

• Amazon launched CloudFront CDN, an inexpensive content delivery network that lets web publishers deliver popular content to users quickly and with ease.

Social Networks:

• Twitter ignited an inferno of critique against a Motrin campaign that implied mothers carry babies as fashion accessories. According to agency Taxi, Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit is pulling the effort.