Some great ones in this slideshow.  From Ad Age and CNBC.

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By Devin Dwyer.

American television shows broadcast across the Middle East are proving to be effective “agents of influence” in the ongoing battle over hearts and minds of ordinary Muslims pondering jihad against the United States, a confidential government cable published by Wikileaks reveals.

ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” and “World News with Diane Sawyer,” as well as CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” and NBC’s sitcom “Friends,” all carry more sway with viewers than a U.S. taxpayer-funded Middle East broadcast network, an unnamed Saudi source told U.S. embassy officials last year.

“It’s still all about the War of Ideas here, and the American programming on [privately-owned] MBC and Rotana is winning over ordinary Saudis in a way that ‘Al Hurra’ and other U.S. propaganda never could,” the source said.

“Saudis are now very interested in the outside world, and everybody wants to study in the U.S. if they can. They are fascinated by U.S. culture in a way they never were before.”

The Saudi government, which exerts tight control over media in the country, has permitted the satellite broadcasts of American programming uncensored with Arabic subtitles over the privately-owned Middle East Broadcasting group (MBC) as a “means of countering the extremists.”

More about American TV Shows “Agents of Influence” here.

Now that’s how you do it.

By Mary Madden and Lee Rainie.

Adults are just as likely as teens to have texted while driving and are substantially more likely to have talked on the phone while driving.

In addition, 49% of adults say they have been passengers in a car when the driver was sending or reading text messages on their cell phone. Overall, 44% of adults say they have been passengers of drivers who used the cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger.

Beyond driving, some cell-toting pedestrians get so distracted while talking or texting that they have physically bumped into another person or an object.

These are some of the key findings from a new survey by The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project:

• Nearly half (47%) of all texting adults say they have sent or read a text message while driving.

• Looking at the general population, this means that 27% of all American adults say they have sent or read text messages while driving. That compares with 26% of all American teens ages 16-17 who reported texting at the wheel in 2009.

• Three in four (75%) cell-owning adults say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. Half (52%) of cell-owning teens ages 16-17 reported talking on a cell phone while driving in the 2009 survey.

• Beyond driving, one in six (17%) cell-owning adults say they have physically bumped into another person or an object because they were distracted by talking or texting on their phone. That amounts to 14% of all American adults who have been so engrossed in talking, texting or otherwise using their cell phones that they bumped into something or someone.

More about Adults Text While Driving Too here.

They have been all over television over the past few years.  You’ve seen them before.  The beautifully art directed HD spots from BP. All those bright green and yellows flying around to that perfect music. It’s easy to find outstanding animated spots in just a few minutes on the web.  And from what I have heard within the business, there were some spots produced recently that were in the $3 million per range. All of that backed up by a substantial national media buy.

All concepted and produced with one thought in mind:  to position BP as a friendly, “we’re here with you” company that is working hard to make the world a much better place.

What a crock.

How long do you think it will be before the millions of dollars spent by BP to position themselves as the savior of our collective energy future just melts away?

When a brand screws us all like this, they become lepers. We cringe at the very thought of doing business with them. We now look at their brand as a ‘taker’, not a ‘giver.’  And in the case of BP, I suspect you will see a growing disdain for the company as the days wear on.

So I wonder when the first round of new TV spots will start up?  It must suck for the agency that is responsible for producing what comes next from the company.  If it were my shop, I would really have to do some soul searching before anyone spent another minute behind the lens on behalf of BP.

Last year, the industry experienced a record-breaking summer, with huge hits like Transformers, The Hangover, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and many others. Coming up this summer there will be another 13 blockbusters and remakes scheduled for release on the big screen.

Here’s just a few of the flicks you can expect to see this summer at a theater near you:

Iron Man 2

Shrek Forever After 3D

Sex and the City 2

Marmaduke

Toy Story 3D

The Twilight Saga:  Eclipse

For most consumer marketers, cinema is the place to be this summer. And throughout the year, cinema advertising is a fantastic complement to any broadcast TV schedule.  So if you are in the theater, consider yourself a smart marketer.  If you’re not, give True Creek a call and let’s fix that.

The Nielsen Co. said Monday that people who multitask this way spent an average of three and a half hours doing so in December. That’s up sharply from the two hours, 29 minutes that Nielsen reported only six months earlier.

The percentage of TV viewers who do this isn’t going up that fast. That increased by 57 percent to 59 percent during the same period. But those who are doing it spend much more time at it.

Television executives have pointed to this trend to help explain why big events like the Oscars, Grammys and pro football playoffs have been doing so well in the ratings – people watching and making comments to their friends through social Web sites like Twitter and Facebook.

More about TV, computer use multitasking up sharply:  Nielsen here.

“Alice in Wonderland” opens in theaters today, accompanied by Disney’s most wide-ranging array of consumer products ever, chasing an unprecedented broad audience.

Tim Burton’s 3-D “Alice” follows the classic character years after her first visit to Wonderland, so it makes sense that Disney would go after an older audience.

So now Disney has adult women in its cross hairs: in addition to the usual range of kids toys, games and apparel, it’s licensing “Alice” for products for adults.

Disney’s going grown-up and high end.

For more on the potential Consumer Products Tea Party, check here.