Both McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) and the advertising industry in general have come a long way since Ray Kroc opened the doors on the first restaurant in 1955, pulling in a whopping $366.12 that day.

It's Ronald McDonald who has become one of the industry's icons, but this, his first commercial, doesn't exhibit such potential. Check it out, and ask yourself - would it have attracted or repelled you?

The ad world is rife with companies fighting to act as middleman between advertiser and media, and the competition is fierce. This week alone, three huge players made news.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced its version of an advertising auction house, in partnership with satellite giant Echostar (NASDAQ:DISH). The search engine company is offering to act as middleman for ad purchases on the Dish Network, as well as delivering the product and provided detailed metrics measuring its impact. The screaming you hear running through the cable industry is because this threatens to encourage other advertisers to demand the same info from cable providers, information they have been very cagy about divulging. Imagine what would happen to their ad rates should Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) discover that 75% of all viewers switched to another channel during their commercial breaks.

DoubleClick, rumored as a takeover target of both Google and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), announced that it is setting up an auction-like exchange to match buyers and sellers of digital ads. The service will allow advertisers to see what others are paying for their placements. DoubleClick already acts as a service bureau for those wishing to place internet advertising, as well as providing metrics to gauge its effectiveness. The company, owned by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, is worth an estimated $2 billion, and success in this expansion could boost its value dramatically.

On the down side, eBay Inc.'s (NASDAQ:EBAY) nascent experiment in electronic ad auctions hit a major roadblock when the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau (CAB) declined to participate in the trial. CAB initially was an enthusiastic participant in the venture, but apparent reluctance by media sellers who feared being cut out of the market caused the Bureau to reconsider its support. Supporters of the pilot program include Microsoft, Home Depot (NYSE:HD) and Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC). eBay has put the program on hold while they regroup.

Vote for the Worst enjoys being a fly around the Tyrannosaurus Rex that is "American Idol."

`"American Idol" isn't really a talent competition," said Dave Della Terza, who founded the snarky Web site in 2004, in an interview. "It's a carefully crafted realty show."

Della Terza hasn't made many friends at Fox and its corporate parent News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) or among rabid fans who regularly accuse him of trying to ruin America's most popular television show. Their angry emails on Vote for the Worst are hysterical.

Topic number one on the minds of his readers is Sanjaya Malakar. For those of you who are in a cave or in a coma, Malakar is a hapless young man who has managed to charm his way into the hearts of the American public. Every week, millions of viewers wait to find out what pop song the 17-year-old will butcher next.

In other words, Malakar is perfect for Vote for the Worst.

"It's pretty obvious that he's scared out of his mind," he said. "It's so awkward that the judges never know what to say."

Last night was no exception. Malakar put his long flowing brown hair into a mock Mohawk. His rendition of No Doubt's "Bathwater" was weird. Simon Cowell summed it up perfectly when he said that at this point it doesn't matter what the judges say about Malakar. Cowell is Sanjaya's "favorite" judge because he's "brutally honest," according to the show's Web site.

This season has had a few highlights for Della Terza. Idol contestant Chris Sligh, the chubby guy with the curly hair, gave him a shout out after finishing one of his songs. The site was also mentioned on VH1's "Best Week Ever."

"He understands the humor behind our Web site," he said of Sligh.

Maybe he'll have more time to enjoy Vote for the Worst. Sligh's rendition of "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" didn't rock the house.

Try as it might, Fox can't ignore Vote for the Worst.

The site gets about one million hits a day and as many as four million hits on show nights. I had trouble getting on Vote for the Worst during last night's broadcast.

Vote for the Worst makes money, but not enough for Della Terza to make a living, he said.

Della Terza took pains to point out that he has a real job. Actually, he's got two of them.

"This is definitely not a job," he joked.

A sea change is about to swamp your television shows, and the source of that tsunami might be a new Nielsen advertising metric to be unveiled this May.

For years, television advertisers have complained about the lack of specific data on who views their ads. They have been forced to make decisions based on show viewership numbers, knowing full well that full bladders, the mute button and Tivo erode those figures substantially.

Now Nielsen is tackling this question with new of data that measure advertisement viewership the same way they have measured the television audience. Commercial ratings will supposedly allow ad buyers to differentiate the number of eyeballs taking in their pitches from those watching the show in which they appear.

TV networks such as CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBS) and the Walt Disney Corp. (NYSE:DIS)'s ABC along with advertising agencies are not so clearly enthused about this metric, though. If a few well-thought-of campaigns prove ineffective in holding the viewing audience, it could cast doubt on the entire industry.

Nielsen, probably cognizant of how deeply their business is intertwined with the ad agency world, is taking a very cautious step into these waters. While advertisers want a second-by-second breakdown on viewership, something modern technology should allow Nielsen to capture, the new metric will only provide an average commercial viewership for each show.

Once this door is breached, however, it's hard to imagine Nielsen long refusing the demands of advertisers for more discrete data. And if they don't like what they see, expect television to change quickly and dramatically. More about this later.

I'm eager to see just how the new generation of entertaining advertisements stack up against one another. How does the snack fairy's numbers compare to the Energizer Bunny? if I had the ability, I would offer a huge prize to the first commercial that outdraws the show in which it appears.

As Beth noted earlier, pitches for AT&T (NYSE:T) on American Idol are as common as hissy fits, and for a good reason. The company has paid an estimated $30-50 million for advertising that includes product placement. Other companies lining A.I.'s pockets include the ubiquitous Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) (the red room!), and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F). As the show has grown into a franchise worth an estimated $2.5 billion, it continues to define the cutting edge on product placement marketing.

According to Advertising Age, 137 different advertisers have appeared on the show in just the last two years. Now that the show is streamed afterward on AmericanIdol.com, the owners of the franchise, Freemantle Media, have been able to graft even more advertisers such as McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) onto it.

CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBS), whose "Evening News" broadcast trails its competition by a mile, recently named former MSNBC head Rick Kaplan to oversee the show. Anchor Katie Couric better hope that Kaplan brings a magic wand with him otherwise her job could be in jeopardy.

Despite all of the talk to the contrary, CBS has got to be wondering if it made the right move hiring Couric. Her predecessor Bob Scheiffer was doing a great job in the wake of the Dan Rather Memogate debacle. In fact, Couric's ratings are worse than his.

There's no doubt though that Couric faces a double-standard because she's a woman, though I don't think her gender is the reason for her poor ratings. Plenty of women anchor local and cable news shows. People just aren't warming up to her as the "Evening News" anchor. Maybe all of the tabloid gossip tarn shed her once golden-girl image. Whatever the reason, Couric is facing an uphill battle.

As the Associated Press points out, Couric's broadcast is a mess. Kaplan, a skilled producer, can make the "Evening News" more coherent. But if people haven't warmed up to the star anchor now, I am not sure they will once the broadcast is revamped.

Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA) will be in no mood to celebrate at this year's upfronts but will have to put on a smile and fake it.

The upfronts are gatherings in which networks talk up their upcoming season to advertisers. The parties are great. There's lots of free food, free food and free stuff. Beneath the frivolity, there's serious business negotiations going on about advertising prices. This is where things get tricky for Viacom.

As yesterday's fourth-quarter results illustrate, Viacom isn't in a strong bargaining position. Wall Street was pretty underwhelmed too. The company had profit of $480.8 million, or 69 cents per share. Excluding one-time charges, profit was 65 cents. Revenue rose 32 cents for $3.59 billion. The results beat analysts' forecasts but concerns about growth tempered people's enthusiasm and the stock fell.

Blogging Stocks readers were divided. Forty-one percent expected Viacom to post disappointing results. It turns out that everyone was right.

The reason for investors' unease is simple: people just don't want their MTV. The performance of the cable business disappointed Wall Street and things aren't going to get better soon. Interestingly, Reuters points out that Viacom doesn't use the "C word" any more. They are now "media networks." Get it.

Perhaps the experts who were expecting a healthy cable upfront may have been too optimistic, though cable keeps snagging audience away from the broadcast networks. The bigger problem is that the Internet is stealing audience from cable. These are the young, hip viewers who advertisers covet. MTV has recently laid off workers and reorganized its sales force to better focus on the Internet.

For now, the company is very much in the TV business and that's a problem.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT), which is in the midst of a huge Vista promotion, will be sitting on the sidelines at the Super Bowl, according to Bloomberg News.

That's right, Microsoft won't be running any advertisements on a show that will attract about 90 millions of viewers. Yeah, I know it's expensive but what's $2.6 million for a 30-second spot for the world's largest software company. Well, apparently too much.

Microsoft's decision underscores the new reality of advertising, which is return on investment or ROI. Marketing departments have to justify whether their spending is going to give their company the most bang for their buck. That's lead to a shift of dollars away from traditional media to the Internet where companies can precisely measure the effectiveness of their spending.

Even so, Microsoft's decision is odd. The company told Bloomberg that it decided to advertise on "CSI" and the Academy Awards broadcast where "there is less competition." There's also less viewers.

CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBS) will make bucket loads of money from Sunday's game between the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts and there are plenty of companies willing to pay big bucks to participate. Let's hope that unlike previous years the game won't be blowout.

News Corp's fledgling (NYSE:NWS) Fox Business News cable channel reached a distribution agreement with Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE:TWX) cable business, a key step in Rupert Murdoch's plan to go head-to-head against General Electric Co.'s (NYSE:GE) CNBC.

As the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) mentions, the deal will make Fox Business News, which Murdoch says will launch this year, available to Time Warner's 13 million subscribers. Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq:CMCSA), the no. 1 cable company. has already agreed to carry the channel.

Ever since Murdoch announced his plans for Fox Business News, I've had my doubts about whether there is enough of an audience to sustain two business channels along with Bloomberg TV (I worked for Bloomberg for seven years) as advertisers shift their spending online. Fox probably is going to offer very attractive rates to advertisers to get them to buy commercial time on the network. Companies will respond enthusiastically at first because they always like to be part of something new. Whether those advertisers will still be around six months later when Fox Business News becomes part of the media landscape remains an open question.

Still, Murdoch faced those same questions when he launched Fox News several years ago to compete against CNN and look what happened.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has cut a deal with British broadcaster BSkyB to provide video programming and services like e-mail for the television firm's website. More important, Google video content will appear on BSkyB programming which runs through set-top boxes that store customer data. Google Adsense program for targeting advertising would be utilized to help serve relevant commercials.

The alliance joins Google with Rupert Murdoch, who controls the British company, which is run by his son.

Google stated that the deal was important to the search company. "This is a really, really big deal for us," said Eric Schmidt, Google's chairman and chief executive. "If it works, it will become our most lucrative deal from the get-go."

Indeed, that may well be so. Set-top box technology is employed in both satellite and cable deployments around the world. If Google's targeting tech allows ads to be more accurately served to consumers based on behavior, it would be a significant break-through for the TV advertising industry.

With newspaper and radio buying services already in place, Google goes after the TV.

Douglas McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.