Advertising

Norma Testardi Pomerantz, 83, of Center City, a trailblazing advertising executive, died of an apparent heart attack Sunday, Dec. 26, at home. In 1967, Mrs. Pomerantz, who was then Mrs. Egendorf, tried to take a client to lunch at the Poor Richard Club, whose members were advertising executives. Though she was an account manager for an advertising agency in Philadelphia, she was turned away because she was a woman. "It was very embarrassing at the time," she told the Philadelphia Daily News in 1984, the year she became president of the Poor Richard Club.

Frances Klein Alberstadt, 82, of Plymouth Meeting, a former advertising manager and hospital volunteer, died of cancer Monday, Nov. 8, at Keystone Hospice in Wyndmoor. Mrs. Alberstadt, the daughter of a Philadelphia Daily News driver, graduated from Overbrook High School. She studied photography and then briefly worked with a commercial photographer. In the late 1940s, she joined Herbach & Rademan, in Chinatown. She became the electronics firm's advertising manager and produced its monthly catalog.

Got school bus? That could be the new refrain if a bill allowing New Jersey school districts to raise money by selling bus advertising moves successfully through the Legislature. The bipartisan measure, advanced Thursday by the Assembly Education Committee, would allow districts to sell ad space on the outside of buses they own or lease. The bill does not address bus service that has been outsourced, though committee members expressed interest in extending the measure to transportation contractors if the idea proves successful.

You've probably seen the Sponsor-A-Highway signs along the region's roads. Steven Singer Jewelers sponsors a mile of the Schuylkill Expressway, Club Risque beckons with pouty lips from I-95, and Gary Barbera calls you down to Dodgeland from his stretch of I-76. But the sponsoring ended more than a year ago. Since the program expired in March 2009, the sponsors haven't had to pay a dime for signs that amount to free advertising on the area's busiest roads. Under the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's Sponsor-A-Highway roadside cleanup program, businesses paid a monthly fee - typically $300 - to a cleaning firm in exchange for the signs, each emblazoned with the cheery slogan "Pennsylvania Business Is Picking Up. " But the program ended when PennDot's contract with the cleaning firm, Adopt A Highway Maintenance Corp.

Last week, Sen. Arlen Specter's campaign bought thousands of ad minutes on Philadelphia black-oriented radio stations to air a clip of President Obama's praising him. And Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins made robo-calls to city Democratic voters saying that Specter has "proven he's on our team" by supporting the economic-stimulus and health-care overhaul. For Specter, surviving the Democratic Senate primary against Rep. Joe Sestak may well come down to his hometown, the city that launched his long political career in 1965, when he was elected district attorney - as a Republican.

South Jersey's Third District will feature one of the nation's most volatile U.S. House races this fall, but so far the primary election season hasn't offered much drama. The leading candidates are playing it safe, declining to debate underfunded upstarts in their respective primaries. And it is not likely they'll spend much on advertising, preferring to hold onto their money for what promises to be an expensive and hard-fought general election. Democratic U.S. Rep. John Adler, the freshman who represents the district, which spans Burlington and Ocean Counties and includes Cherry Hill in Camden County, has been on the trail, but mainly sticking to his town meetings and Congress-related events.

A rebounding market for cable TV advertising and new Internet and phone customers helped Comcast Corp. report higher first-quarter revenue and profit. Chief executive officer Brian L. Roberts said Wednesday that the cable giant had a "solid start to 2010" and that the company saw a "real turnaround in advertising. " Ad revenue increased 23 percent in the quarter compared with the year-earlier period, the company said. Consolidated revenue rose 3.8 percent in the quarter to $9.2 billion, and profit rose 12.2 percent to $866 million.

In a way, it began with Napoleon's conquest of Venice in 1797. Then, almost a century later, the idea itself was dreamed up by artists over coffee at Florian's on the Piazza San Marco. But first there was the matter of relocating the elephant named Toni. These disparate events led to the birth in 1895 of the Venice Biennale, which for as long as anyone can remember has been accepted as the art world's most important gathering. The international exhibition, opening for the 53d time next Sunday, reliably makes big waves, if only for the reliable fretting from many of its 200,000-plus visitors that it no longer makes big waves.

Philadelphians yesterday approved two ballot questions changing the City Charter. One change will posthumously promote to the next rank any Philadelphia police officers, firefighters, and paramedics who die in the line of duty. That will mean increased support for survivors, as death benefits are based on an officer's or employee's rank. The measure passed overwhelmingly. The second allows Council to change how it lets the public know about meetings, legislation, and contracts up for bid. Passed with strong support, it gives more latitude in deciding how notices are disseminated.

Philly.com, a division of Philadelphia Media Holdings that also hosts online content from The Inquirer and the Daily News, has joined a consortium of media companies partnering with Yahoo! to increase online advertising and job recruitment. The partnership relies on "behavioral targeting" to help boost revenue at a time when newspaper advertising is suffering as a result of the bad economy and a drop in retail sales. Print advertising at newspapers was down 17.7 percent last year compared to 2007, according to the Newspaper Association of America.