The Bank of America has turned to Twitter as a channel for customer care. Betty Crocker's marketing team worked with CafeMom.com, a social network for moms and moms-to-be, to help moms plan birthday parties for children ages 3 to 12. And Cheetos and its creative agency, Goodby Silverstein & Partners collaborated with Federated Media to develop a sponsorship program called Cheetos Boredom Busters. The initiatives of Bank of America, General Mills' Betty Crocker,

A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading: Ben Edelman Proposes Bill of Rights for Online Advertisers Everyone's favorite privacy researcher lays out rights he says advertisers should demand as they place ad buys. )BenEdelman.org( IAB Releases Final In-Game Advertising Measurement Guidelines Formal document follows release of draft guidelines in June.

I'm settling into my new role at Search Engine Watch, ClickZ and Search Engine Strategies. I'm meeting lots of new people and digging my way out of a lot of paperwork and red tape. In between, the industry has been ticking along and I've hardly had a moment to notice what has been going on. I thought it may be a good idea to have a reflection on a few things that certainly did catch my attention this week. So, in a week when.

Journalists planning to attend the Facebook GeneratioNext Wrap Party during next week's Advertising Week just got this advisory: It's going to be an off-the-record event. Does that mean we're going to have to leave our camera phones at the door? That doesn't seem very social.

A few stories ClickZ editors are reading: eBay Adopting Syndicated Google Paid Search Ads, Dropping Yahoo In the last three weeks, paid search agency saw the bulk of clicks on the site shift to Google ads. )Rimm-Kaufman Group( Over 1,000 Content owners Now Using Content ID Every major U.S. network broadcaster, film studio, and record label now use the program,

Is Google in talks to acquire Brightcove? Mark Glaser of PBS MediaShift tweeted a rumor to that effect this afternoon , saying a source with knowledge of the negotiations pegged the acquisition at between $500 and $700 million. Such a transaction might make sense for Google on a number of levels. For one, it could help it convince big media companies to trust it with their premium content. Brightcove's media customers already include many majors, including Fox Entertainment,

Facebook has reached profitability quicker than it expected, according to the social network's founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Writing on the firm's blog yesterday , Zuckerberg said, "Earlier this year, we said we expected to be cash flow positive sometime in 2010, and I'm pleased to share that we achieved this milestone last quarter." Facebook has struggled to monetize its platform as easily as it may have hoped,

Following the launch of its LocationPoint location-based ad product earlier this year, Nokia-owned Navteq has announced it is acquiring U.S.-based Acuity Mobile - the firm that enables the delivery of those ads. As well as targeting, the company offers a range of campaign management, tracking and reporting tools. Having previously licensed Acuity's technology, and taken a $2.8 million stake in the company last year,

Well, Democratic online fundraising powerhouse ActBlue is running ads targeted to searches for "you lie" pol Joe Wilson. So is the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, despite the fact that Wilson and his Democratic rival Rob Miller are running for a South Carolina House seat in 2010.

Google has faced criticism from a range of publishers over its Google News aggregation product, but it looks like the search giant is at least trying to play nice with trials of a new ad supported - but revenue sharing - news aggregation product. Fast Flip collates news content from a range of third party publishers in an interface it describes as "combining the best elements of print and online articles." Essentially,

Hyatt and Toyota are among the interactive advertiser nominees for The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's upcoming Media Awards in Advertising. GLAAD announced its nominees for traditional and interactive advertising today in preparation for its first ever GLAAD Media Awards in Advertising ceremony, to be held in New York on October 27. The organization's goal is to ensure that members of the LGBT community are portrayed fairly and accurately in the media. In May,

Big U.S. Media Companies Join Up to Study TV Audiences NBC Universal, CBS, News Corp., Time Warner and others shared details of their nascent cross-media measurement consortium. The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, as it is called, will use set-top box data to gather more detailed viewer info. It will also seek to better integrate data from mobile and Web platforms. )Reuters( AT&T Launches Online Video Site New destination takes page from Hulu and Comcast's Fancast.

Nielsen has announced it is acquiring South Korean Web measurement firm KoreanClick for an undisclosed sum. Launched in 2000, the firm collects data on Internet usage and user attitudes, including audience measurement for applications such as online gaming and instant messaging. Clients currently include Internet firms, advertisers, and agencies. Nielsen itself is already active locally in the retail and TV measurement space,

By now even if you didn't watch or listen to President Obama's speech on healthcare before Congress, you've probably heard about the "You Lie!" disruption. Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican blurted out, "You Lie!" when the prez said the reforms he is proposing would not apply to illegal immigrants. Since then, his opponent in the 2010 congressional race, Rob Miller, has "reportedly raised more than $200,000 from thousands of donors since Wilson's outburst,

Can merchants, designers - and even a publisher - get penny-pinching consumers to change their ways despite the economic downturn? An initiative, Fashion's Night Out 2009, aims to do that and help revive NYC's fashion industry. Taking place in at least 13 cities tonight, including NYC, the campaign taps Twitter and Facebook to develop buzz. Many of the city's retailers and designers are sponsoring special events. For instance,

As I note today in my piece about Clear Channel's growing integrated media division , the firm has moved far beyond terrestrial radio only. They're busy building out their New York integrated media office, and creating custom work - rich media, video, cross-media DJ-tie-ins, mobile, in-person events - for lots of big name clients like Ford, McDonald's, and Six Flags. Later this week, Clear Channel plans to launch a new channel in its popular iheartradio platform,

My husband and I eloped and didn't tell anyone before we did it, so I guess I'm naturally skeptical of people who want to make spectacles of their marriage proposals and weddings. Today the cynic in me surfaced again when I caught wind of the "Dalila, will you marry me?" campaign launched by a guy named Fred, evidently a staffer at digital agency Deep Focus. Fred included video and social media-enabled banner ads on women-aimed site SheKnows,

Oreo has tapped star power to promote its new Golden Double Stuf cookie. In a homepage video ad that appears today on YouTube, Donald Trump challenges Eli and Peyton Manning to participate in a "lick race" competition to buy the so-called DSRL or the Double Stuf Racing League. The YouTube video includes a promotion pointing Oreo fans to follow the brand on Facebook and Twitter and visit a YouTube channel or microsite for the Double Stuf Racing League.

The Email Experience Council reports that AOL is ending its e-mail report card program - a tool used by e-mail marketing managers. "This kind of service just isn't around anymore, and I fear we took it for granted," writes Kevin Senne, director, deliverability and social networking, Premiere Global Services, on the EEC blog.

Wow. According to Daily Telegraph by way of TechCrunch , Google's London offices are burning. In a Twitter post about 20 minutes ago, Telegraph's Jon Swaine wrote, "Buck Pal Road has been closed while firemen er, watch the fire at Google London HQ.