Chief Marketer Staff

• Ronco Deal Leads to Public Trading of Shares

  Ronco Corp., the direct marketing firm founded over 40 years ago by Ron Popeil, has become a publicly traded company thanks to a merger with Fi-Tek Inc.

• FTC Wins Judgments Against Opportunity-Seeker DMers

  Two firms that sold dubious opportunities to earn money
  have been all but shut down as a result of complaints filed last February by the Federal Trade Commission.

• Thrift Car Rental in Web-Sweeps Promotion

  To take the heat off travelers’ summer gas woes, Thrifty Car Rental recently launched a sweepstakes awarding a daily prize of a pre-paid gas card worth $1,800.

• Direct Media Wins Emmis Publishing Files

  Direct Media Inc. has been named manager of the Emmis Publishing subscriber files, containing over 400,000 names.

• Short Cuts

  Level 5 Marketing Inc., a marketing services company, opened for business in Denver.

• List and Database News

  Mailing list availabilities

• Agencies

  Merchandise Metamorphosis

  SOMETIMES IT SEEMS AS IF TODAY’S MAIN CATALOG GROWTH strategy is, We’ll just give them a lot more stuff to buy and watch the sales pour in. Would that

• Agencies

  Is Sony’s Cyber-shot Ad Condescending to Women?

  It could be argued very well, then, I will argue that Sony’s ad for its Cyber-shot digital camera is just a bit sexist. I don’t have any objection to

• Agencies

  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

  GOOD READING I loved Katie Muldoon’s recent column (Direct From Muldoon, May 1). It’s smart to compare catalogs to compelling literature.Arnold HowardParagon

• Agencies

  Urban Renewal

  Douglas Freeland first heard about Hot Import Nights from a regional colleague at McDonald’s. The first time I went to one, I was amazed at the crowd: