MetLife will join the line-up of first-time Super Bowl advertisers with a 30-second spot featuring the Peanuts characters, which have been central to its marketing for decades. The company has a relationship with one of the game's teams with its name on the New York Giants home field.

In a new report, watchdog group Public Citizen blasts school districts willing to sell advertising on school-related real estate from lockers to cafeteria trays, arguing that the lasting impact on children far outweighs any financial resources a school district may raise.

WPP's Millward Brown is adding facial recognition technology to its commercial testing service to better assess the emotional impact of ads, the company has confirmed. "By adding facial expression analysis to Link, brand owners can get at the emotional response that people might not be able to articulate in surveys," says Millward's evp of neuroscience practice, Graham Page.

72% of tablet owners who read digital magazines on their devices in the last 30 days said they would prefer all digital magazines to be formatted in the same way, according to the iPanel results. 70% of tablet owners who read digital magazines on their devices said they would like to be able to buy items simply by clicking on ads in the digital magazines.

The Super Bowl brings all types of viewers to its annual Sunday party -- but increasingly, this big TV event is more wealthy, female, and diverse. Nielsen also says more Hispanic-Americans and African-Americans are watching the game -- up two percentage points each to 9% and 11%, respectively. in 2011.

The value of broadcast TV companies, as well as integrated media companies that include broadcast assets, have lagged the broader stock market gains in the last two years. Michael Alcamo, president of M.C. Alcamo, says this sluggishness is a mystery because usually media companies outperform other companies in a rising stock market.

Even with TiVo, about 40% of TV is consumed live. But to make the inference that this behavior is representative of all DVR users is most likely unwise, since TiVo owners have to make the conscious decision to purchase a TiVo unit.

Or tweet some yourself at Twitter hashtag #MPSuperAds Sunday before, during or after the kick-off of Super Bowl XLVI at 6:30 (ET) on NBC. MediaPost, in collaboration with TargetCast interactive chief Steve Minichini, will host a special tweet-up of impressions, reactions and predictions of industry pundits surrounding the Big Game, and the big ad campaigns that break during it. Or just sit back and watch the action unfold live on www.mediapost.com/publications.

MEC said communications director Dallia Herrtage will join the agency in New York from its flagship UK office. She will be responsible for driving integrated communication planning on the Marriott International account.

Hewlett-Packard's Personal Systems Group, which covers business and consumer PCs, mobile computing devices and workstations, has put creative duties on its advertising account into review.

Kantar reported that digital coupon distribution was up just over 12% in 2011 versus the prior year. By comparison, the number of coupons printed in free standing inserts last year was down 6.5%. And year-to-year spending on newspaper inserts declined by 12% to about $1.3 billion.

News Corp. this afternoon named Lex Fenwick CEO of Dow Jones & Co. Fenwick had been CEO of one of Dow Jones' chief business news competitors, Bloomberg LP, and the man who stepped in to run the company when Founder Michael Bloomberg left to become mayor of New York City.

NBC Universal's Universal Pictures and its digital movie ticket company Fandango have inked a rare movie marketing deal for "Battleship," a big summer action movie, promoting the opportunity to buy advance ticket sales through a TV commercial in the Super Bowl.

Advertising revenue for Viacom's media networks, including MTV and Nickelodeon, decreased 3% on both a domestic and worldwide basis, driven by lower ratings and softness in the U.S. advertising market. Total revenue in the reported quarter was up 3% year-over-year.

The New York Times Co. reports that total revenues declined 2.8% to $643 million in the fourth quarter of 2011. This is the sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue declines for NYTCO, which last saw revenue growth in the second quarter of 2010.

Three of the six most-awarded TV commercials in the world last year were created by Wieden + Kennedy, according to the Gunn Report's annual award compendium. W+K's Amsterdam office created two of the top three-awarded spots, including first-place Nike's "Write the Future" and Heineken's "The Entrance."

MRM, a global digital and direct agency, named Jim Wayand global business leader for the agency's Team Intel.

MRM, a global digital and direct agency, named Jim Wayand global business leader for the agency's Team Intel.

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit fans that are concerned about the well-being of the planet can do their part by patronizing an online sale hosted by Gilt and SI to benefit environmental conservation.

The U.S. was the most awarded advertising market in the world during 2011, according to an annual analysis of the major advertising awards competitions released this morning by The Gunn Report. According to Gunn, the U.S. won with the "second highest" score ever in the history of its reports. The U.K. ranked second, followed by Brazil, Argentina and Germany. The U.S. results no doubt were aided by the strong performance of individual agencies, especially Wieden + Kennedy's Portland headquarters, which ranked as the second most awarded agency in the world. It ranked just behind Wieden + Kennedy's Amsterdam office, marking the first time two offices of the same agency ranked first and second.