The ad industry doesn't have too many black people working in it, which has never been that much of a concern to the whites. Until now, because a fancy lawyer might start suing everybody:

Did you know that the most important thing about Barack Obama's election is the fact that he's giving hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free publicity to the makers of Blackberry? It's true.

Burger King, for no good reason, has America's edgiest advertising. And it just got edgier. Now you can make it known publicly that someone's "friendship" is less valuable to you than 1/10th of a sandwich.

A landmark actual new scientific study has discovered that, yes, Axe Body Spray can help you get laid. But opening your stupid mouth could render the sickly juvenile aphrodisiac worthless.

Because every excellent, original TV series must have an inferior ripoff on another network: forget Mad Men, the new advertising-centric drama is Trust Me. On TNT! Your new Don Draper: that guy from Ed.

Atheist war on ChristmasJesus strikes London. Beware. [NYT]

The attached ad, ostensibly raising money to help Israelis, aired during MSNBC's Countdown tonight. As a tipster pointed out, one of the explosions looks totally fake.

Ad Creep installment #563: "Crotchvertising," to sell garish watches. The only shocking thing here is that Dov Charney is not involved somehow. [Trendhunter]

Good morning sunshine! It's January, which means the horrible media advertising apocalypse has now begun. But not to worry, media lovers; it's only affecting every famous book, magazine, and newspaper publisher:

It once might have raised hackles for the Times to carry a display ad on the front page. Now the only scandal is that the paper waited so long.

The Huffington Post raised $25 million right before traffic cratered post election. Ad Age's Simon Dumenco ran the new numbers and decided HuffPo is just a sad new version of Salon.

The French CEO of huge ad conglomerate Publicis thinks Barack Obama's election shows America is smart again! Also, that all this economic trouble is the fault of shady corporate lies. But not advertising lies:

• More cuts at Condé Nast could come when Si Newhouse returns from his European vacation next week. Among the possible victims: Domino, Details, and staffers in the company's web division. [NYP]
• Berkley Books has cancelled plans to publish Angel at the Fence, a Holocaust memoir that the author admitted contains fabrications. [NYT]
• NBC is producing more webisodes to make up for programming gaps. [NYT]
• Ad spending in '09 is expected to drop to its lowest point since '03. [AdAge]
• CNBC's Conversations with Michael Eisner is no more. [NYP]
• An interview with CNN prez Jon Klein, who scored big ratings this year with AC360 and Campbell Brown's new show, but will also go down as the genius responsible for giving D.L. Hughley his own cable news program. [HuffPo]

"Factor in inflation, and '09 spending likely will come in well below the level of 2001...That would be the first three-year decline since the Great Depression." [Ad Age] (Photo)

"We just thought, let’s try and figure out a fun brand we could put behind some of these casual games." [Times]

To the expert eyes at photo agency Vanderbilt Republic, the above two-page New Yorker ad looked odd. Why is only the white girl "heavily retouched to give her perfect skin and rosy cheeks?"

• For the first time in 12 years, FedEx is skipping the Super Bowl. [AdWeek]
• Another gloomy sign for NBC as the Super Bowl approaches: The network is allowing an agency to divide up 30-second commercials. [THR]
• GQ's cover featuring a half-nude Jennifer Aniston seems to be too risqué for the Hudson News outlet in Grand Central Terminal. [Folio]
• SAG has delayed voting on a potential strike until at least January 14. [EW]
• Ticket sales have tumbled since Jeremy Piven ditched Speed-the-Plow. [AP]

Voice your choice! Earlier we showed you three of the year's most annoying TV ads; now we've added two more, and made a poll—of infamy. Vote below for the year's worst ad:

You can try to avoid television advertising with your fancy DVR, podcast downloads and Hulu streams. But Don Draper types will just repeat annoying ads like these, endlessly, until you're insane.

Massive advertising/ PR/ marketing conglomerate Omnicom (the most appropriately sinister name in the industry, btw) leaked word yesterday that they're planning on laying off 5% of their workforce, about 3,500 people. And now the axe is swinging—we hear that 200 staffers were just laid off at ad agency BBDO. "They have till the end of the day to pack up," notes our tipster. Better hurry, guys! No word on whether the BBDO sex tape participants were counted against that 200.