NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Fiery race car crashes, exploding oil refineries, policemen getting shoot in the chest at point-blank range -- are just some of DuPont's new social media tools. Fearing that it's losing touch with young professionals who don't read traditional media, the chemical giant developed a a social media strategy anchored in viral video. Digging into its archive, the chemical giant pulled out some of its most spectacular product test and demonstration footage. And this become the core of a series of three-minute programs hosted by video blogger Amanda Congdon and distributed widely across online video sites.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Do adolescents require special new protections against digital marketing techniques? In her talk at the Children's Advertising Review Unit Conference, Ellen Wartella cited new findings that suggest they might. The regulations for children's' advertising developed in the 1970s are based primarily on television viewing. But today's digital communications have completely changed the marketing environment. Ms. Wartella is a professor of psychology at the University of California and a CARU advisor.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Nielsen executive, book author and Ad Age columnist Pete Blackshaw is astounded by the number of brand managers who still have no coherent strategy for dealing with negative blog posts. The customer service guru was keynote speaker at the Children's Advertising Review Unit Conference. But during the Q&A, audience members seemed more interested in tips about how to deal with negative blog posts -- than children's advertising issues.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The flap over Self magazine's heavy photoshopping of its recent Kelly Clarkson cover flared anew at last week's Women at NBCU breakfast. The event kicked off the network's new advertising sales initiative around health issues. Dr. Nancy Snyderman, moderator and chief media editor at NBC News, opened a panel discussion by highlighting the national problem of body image, anorexia and bulimia among young women. Self editor-in-chief and panel member Lucy Danziger defended her publication's controversial image enhancement.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- LinkedIn may be the least glitzy of the major social media sites but it's also one of the most successful. Launched in 2003, it's been making a profit since 2007 and, despite the recession, some of its ad categories continue to sell at CPMs of $50 or more. In this eight-minute interview, founder and chairman Reid Hoffman discusses LinkedIn's current operations.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Graphics software giant Adobe, which has shifted 74% of its entire advertising budget to digital venues, is making similar changes with its product launches. CMO Ann Lewnes cites two reasons for abandoning traditional product launch strategies: high cost and limited reach. The latest launch of Adobe's CS4 suite of creative programs went completely digital. And the difference, according to Ms. Lewnes, was quite dramatic.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Although Sherwin-Williams was the first paint company out of the gate with a consumer iPhone app, competitor Benjamin Moore PRed its own app into a top hit with the media. Speaking at the Ad Age/Applicious recent "Apps for Brands" conference, Moore's director of product development used his own success to underscore the importance of launch PR strategies in the new world of apps marketing.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- On-screen and in-lobby advertising have become ever more important to the movie theater business in the last decade. In 2008, Cinema Advertising Council member chains -- which control 82% of the country's screens -- took in nearly $600 million in ad revenue. And as they work to expand that further, they're seeking new ways to sell their lobbies to marketers.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The bevy of new digital ways to deliver Hollywood movies directly to the home is not really a threat to the movie theater business. So says Cinema Advertising Council Executive Director Dave Kupiec. Pointing to the fact that ticket sales have risen nearly 8.5% during the recession, he says the unique experience of theater-going itself has a strong hold on American consumers -- and that they are not likely to abandon it for digital convenience.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Few television content producers can top Ken Burns for the worldwide acclaim and audiences their creations have drawn. Over the last 30 years, Burns has produced 20 major documentaries -- some of them as long as eighteen hours. And, beginning with his 1990 "The Civil War," they have also included some of the most remembered media events of the entire age of television. Burns appeared at the Grand Hyatt New York last week to be honored in the seventh annual "Giants of Broadcasting" awards ceremony.