Marketing

Atlanta-based paper company Georgia Pacific hired Edelman PR for a $20,000 campaign to teach children the health benefits of washing their hands. As part of the "Clean Hands Week" campaign, actors hired by Georgia Pacific went to five Atlanta schools where they recreated scenes from the book "Mike's Dirty, Yucky, Icky, Sticky Adventure," which was developed for the campaign as well and will be distributed to 400 Atlanta-area schools. Edelman staff, dressed as germs, appeared on CBS's The Early Show where they gave out website and 1-800 number information for the campaign.

The Omnicom Group is negotiating a deal with Viacom Inc.'s UPN network to arrange product placements on UPN's TV programs in exchange for Omnicom buying $30 million in TV ads. According to industry executives, part of the deal calls for McDonald's to be scripted into ''The Hughleys,'' a sitcom about an African-American suburban family starring comic D.L. Hughley. Other clients whose products will be scripted into UPN shows include Cingular Wireless, Gillette, Sony's PlayStation, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance and Vivendi Universal's Universal Pictures.

Channel One, which beams TV news programs and commercials into thousands of schools in the U.S., has broadcast dozens of news segments which contained anti-drug messages in the past three years -- and received millions of dollars' worth of ad credits from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for doing so.

Arbitron Inc., the research company that provides the ratings on which most U.S. radio advertising rates are based, plans to use new technology to increase the accuracy of its audience data. For nearly 35 years, Arbitron has collected data by having individuals fill out paper diaries documenting their radio listening habits. Needing to replace the outdated system to stay in business, Arbitron will be testing out "portable people meters." The beeper-like devices electronically measure every radio, television and cable broadcast a person takes in.