Hasta La Creative!

Heated air will warm 10 Chicago bus shelters, courtesy of the Stove Top brand of stuffing. Such marketing is meant to entice consumers to experience products tangibly.

The economic downturn is renewing interest on Madison Avenue in a marketing mainstay that is particularly popular during tough times: cash giveaways.

As Walgreens formally opens at 1 Times Square on Thursday, executives are describing plans for the giant signs that will festoon the building on three sides.

Holiday advertising from a lengthening list of retailers will reflect the cautious mood among consumers as data indicate spending is slowing and store revenue is falling.

Marketers of financial services are still planning ad campaigns during what is being described as the worst crisis for Wall Street since the Great Depression.

As consumers cut back spending, companies are reducing their ad budgets or shifting to lower-cost alternatives like e-mail marketing and public relations.

Marketers, borrowing a page from the electoral playbook, are becoming more willing to run aggressive ads in which brands attack their competitors by name.

Readers wrote in some of their favorite portrayals of Madison Avenue.

Some of the highlights, lowlights and sidelights at the 98th annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers.

Shoppers who are anxious about their jobs, savings and retirement accounts are in no mood to pay attention to the blandishments of advertising agencies, jeopardizing billions of dollars in ad spending.