KEY ADVERTISING MAN CARBONE EXITS CAA; ZIFF SUITORS APPEAR FROM JAPAN; CRACKNELL LEAVES BATES IN CONTRACT DISPUTE; AMTRAK SIDETRACKS NBC ADS OVER LENO JOKES; SEAT'S $200M ACCOUNT HEADED TO CASADEVALL, AYER; NIELSEN READIES NEW METHODOLOGY FOR BLACK VIEWER

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.-Steven Carbone, the Creative Artists Agency executive hired by Chairman Michael Ovitz last year to pursue new advertising deals for the talent shop, is leaving, industry executives said. Mr. Carbone, who joined CAA in July 1993 after 16 years with rival International Creative Management, couldn't be reached at press time. NEW YORK-Softbank Corp., a Tokyo-based distributor of PC software, said last week it's one of the suitors for Ziff Communications, which went on the auction block earlier this year. Meanwhile, Goldman, Sachs & Co. is representing a consortium of three unidentified Japanese manufacturers that also are jockeying for the Ziff titles. Reed Elsevier is no longer interested in buying all of Ziff, but top company officials said they're still interested "in parts" of the company, publisher of PC Week, PC Magazine and Computer Shopper. NEW YORK-Bates Worldwide lost its worldwide executive creative director with the departure of Andrew Cracknell, 48, who also had the titles of Bates USA creative director and creative head of Bates Dorland, London. Mr. Cracknell's exit is said to result from a contractual dispute over his responsibilities. His Bates USA creative responsibilities will be shared by creative directors Jim White, Bob Froelich, Gordon Fenton and Mike Robertson. WASHINGTON-Amtrak is pulling $2 million in advertising from NBC in response to what it considered unflattering jokes by "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno. Amtrak was expected to re-allocate the ad spending elsewhere, via agency DDB Needham Worldwide, New York. NBC President Robert Wright, responding to a letter from Amtrak's president announcing the change, said he would bring the matter to the attention of Mr. Leno, who Mr. Wright said was "very sensitive about advertisers." BARCELONA-SEAT is expected to confirm Casadevall Pedreno & PRG and network Ayer Europe as its new pan-European agency team Oct. 18, ending a long battle with BBDO Europe, expected to lose the German and Swedish SEAT business. The auto marketer's 1993 pan-European ad spending was $200 million. NORTHBROOK, Ill.-Nielsen Media Research this week is expected to announce a change in its method of counting African-American households. That announcement will be made at a news conference Oct. 19 by U.S. Rep. Cardiss Collins (D., Ill.) and a task force appointed in the wake of cancellations earlier this year by Fox of two black-oriented programs, "Roc" and "Martin." REDMOND, Wash.-Microsoft Corp.'s planned $1.5 billion purchase of Intuit Inc. would instantly make Microsoft the dominant force in personal-finance software with Intuit's Quicken. The move will make the software giant a contender to dominate the emerging field of PC- and TV-based interactive financial services. The acquisition could face antitrust hurdles despite Microsoft's decision to sell Money software, its also-ran product, to rival Novell. GOLDEN, Colo.-Coors Brewing Co. today breaks new advertising for its Zima ClearMalt that dumps its zany hatted spokesman for a series of stylish slow-motion, b&w TV spots. The commercials from Foote, Cone & Belding, San Francisco, feature Generation Xers who have "Zomething in common," in group situations: walking with a case of Zima, playing co-ed football and eating in a diner. The spots feature no dialogue, only music. The new campaign, also including radio and print, dubs Zima "the ultimate in adult refreshment." SEATTLE-Starbucks Coffee Co. this month launches in Northwest markets its first-ever series of TV spots to promote a new line of Starbucks brand espresso machines. The new appliances, introduced Oct. 1, replace the Braun machines the retailer formerly carried. EvansGroup, Seattle, handles. LOS ANGELES-Unocal Corp. and longtime agency Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, have agreed to end their 56-year relationship. Unocal's once-national presence has dwindled as the gasoline retailer has become a West Coast-oriented company, with an estimated $10 million account. Unocal said it will review a "select group" of California agencies to replace Burnett, but declined to name any. NEW YORK-CBS' stock surged and fell last week on an Oct. 10 report by USA Today columnist Dan Dorfman that CBS Chairman Laurence Tisch has renewed discussions about having QVC Chairman Barry Diller run CBS after Comcast Corp. and Tele-Communications Inc.'s QVC acquisition is completed. CBS' stock price rallied $11.75 to $339 on the news but later fell due to major losses in CBS' third-quarter earnings report and analysts' reactions to the network's poor start in the 1994-95 prime-time season. CBS stock closed on Thursday at $309.50. SACRAMENTO, Calif.-R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. appears to be backing down from its threat of a lawsuit against TV stations, but is demanding an apology from the California Department of Health Services for a spot it says libels Chairman James W. Johnston. The commercial from Asher/Gould, Los Angeles, features congressional hearing footage of Mr. Johnston and other tobacco CEOs asserting under oath that nicotine isn't addictive, while a voice-over keeps repeating the words "under oath" to call into question the CEOs' comments. The department said it has no intentions of pulling the ad, calling the libel claim an "act of desperation." KABC in Los Angeles and KBHK in San Francisco have said they will not air the spot unless it is re-edited, something the department refuses to do. LONDON-Richard Branson's Virgin Group will battle the big colas by introducing Virgin cola as the start of a soft-drink, mineral water and juice-based beverage line to appear in the U.K. next month before rolling out elsewhere within 18 months. But Mr. Branson has higher ambitions: He told CBS last week he would consider marketing marijuana if the drug were legalized and the British Medical Association determined it was harmless. Virgin Cola Co. is a 50-50 joint venture with Cott Corp., Toronto, which will produce the cola. Virgin plans an $8 million six-month U.K. TV and print campaign by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe and will use local agencies in each market. ST. LOUIS-Trans World Airlines will move its estimated $40 million global account from Bates Worldwide, New York, as expected (AA, Oct. 3). Mark Coleman, TWA senior VP-marketing, said a shop here will handle the account starting in January. D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles is said to be the leading contender. NEW YORK-New York will mark a first when it publishes an edition with two separate covers, for the Oct. 24 issue going on sale today. The theme that ties them together is "hate." One features WABC talk radio star Bob Grant under the headline, "Why he hates blacks." The other features Nation of Islam minister Conrad Muhammad under the headline, "Why he hates Jews." Both stories will run in all editions of the 431,816-circulation title. Said Editor Kurt Andersen: "I think it will make people think and talk." ROME-Italy was waiting to hear late last week whether Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would be notified of an official investigation into his shareholding of Italy's pay-TV company Telepiu. Mr. Berlusconi sold the company, formed by his media group Fininvest, to adhere to anti-trust legislation preventing him from holding more than 10% of channels other than the three major national TV networks Fininvest controls (AA, Oct. 10). TOKYO-Dentsu plans to reorganize its overseas operations on Nov. 1 in an apparent move toward more centralized control from headquarters. Dentsu said it hopes to make its international network more efficient but declined to say if the restructuring will force reassignments. Four operational headquarters are planned for the U.S. in New York, Europe in London, China/Hong Kong in Hong Kong and Asia/Oceania here. Each will handle regional strategies and oversee subsidiaries. JOHANNESBURG-South Africa is revising the Code of Advertising Practice to permit comparative ads, the independent Advertising Standards Authority said. The revision will allow fair and honest comparisons among competing products and services to run in ads. The authority will determine, before publishing or broadcasting, whether comparisons are fair and honest. AMSTERDAM-TWBA/NETH-work, a joint venture set up between TBWA International and Hakuhodo to handle Nissan's pan-European account, is merging with Hakuhodo (Nederland), the coordinator for Canon's European advertising. The merger is seen as part of Hakuhodo's trend toward pursuing Japanese clients more aggressively in Europe. In a separate deal, TBWA bought Amsterdam agency Campaign Co., formerly part of the CDP Europe network, minority-owned by Dentsu. PORDENONE, Italy-White goods marketer Zanussi is putting its $22 million ad account into review. Incumbent Pirella Gottsche & Lowe, Milan, and several undisclosed agencies will participate. A decision is expected by yearend. HAMBURG-Magazine publishers Gruner & Jahr and Heinrich Bauer plan new German TV listing magazines starting next month, both aimed at the estimated 4.5 million educated, affluent Germans who claim to watch little TV. Gruner & Jahr's magazine, Number One, named Knopf Naegeli Schnakenberg here to handle its $10 million introduction campaign. Bauer's guide, Teletag, has undisclosed marketing plans. AMSTERDAM-A new terrestrial commercial TV channel is scheduled to start next September targeting desirable but hard-to-reach viewers between ages 15 and 35. Broadcasting organization Veronica and production company Endemol are setting up a 50-50 joint venture to start the still-unnamed station, which will carry programming from Veronica. TORONTO-MediaLinx Interactive, created by a telephone company consortium, may offer Canadians pay-per-view movies, home shopping, TV college courses and remote medical diagnosis by the end of 1995. Bell Quebec said the system could link telephones, TVs and computers. MediaLinx, announced by Bell Canada, New Brunswick Telephone, Telus Corp. and BC Telecom, is 60% owned by Bell Canada's parent company BCE. RIO DE JANEIRO-Brazil's 10th largest bank, Banco Nacional, is reviewing its $10 million retail banking ad business. DM9 Publicidade and incumbent MPM Lintas Comunicacoes, both Sao Paulo, are among several agencies pitching. STOCKHOLM-McDonald's is again moving its $2 million to $3 million Swedish account after several weeks of juggling. The account landed at new agency Andren & Werne, owned by former executives at Ronnberg McCann, which held the account until last month. The account moved first to Leo Burnett Co. affiliate Nord & Co. with the expectation that Ronnberg's account team would join Nord. After Nord declined Burnett's $14 million takeover offer, the McDonald's account team broke off to form Andren & Werne. MEXICO CITY-National Association of the Computer Program Industry cleared J. Walter Thompson Mexico, the subject earlier this year of a government raid turning up pirated software (AA, April 11). The association said neither it nor the software companies involved, Lotus Development Corp. and Aldus Corp., plan to press charges. Piracy in Mexico is estimated to have cost the industry $155 million last year.

KEY ADVERTISING MAN CARBONE EXITS CAA; ZIFF SUITORS APPEAR FROM JAPAN; CRACKNELL LEAVES BATES IN CONTRACT DISPUTE; AMTRAK SIDETRACKS NBC ADS OVER LENO JOKES; SEAT'S $200M ACCOUNT HEADED TO CASADEVALL, AYER; NIELSEN READIES NEW METHODOLOGY FOR BLACK VIEWER

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