Protracted contract extension negotiations between Michael
Jordan and McDonald's caused the star to "bow out" of a promotion
at the last minute in January. Inside sources say Jordan's role
in future ads "likely will be reduced." Jordan's agent, David
Falk, declined to comment (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/25)....Television
Production Partners, which produced "Hank Aaron: Chasing the
Dream" is profiled in the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The company is a
consortium of advertisers including: GM, AT&T, Campbell Soup,
Clorox, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Coors, Sears, MasterCard and
Reebok (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/25)....Marketing firm Cyrk is
profiled in BARRON'S. The company's stock jumped 3 3/4 to 16 3/4
on news that it will help Pepsi with it's Pepsi Stuff campaign
designed to compete against Coca-Cola's Olympic involvement
(Andrew Bary, BARRON'S, 3/25 issue)....Linda DeMarco, owner of
the Boston Pretzel Bakery, was officially informed Friday that
Aramark will now supply Fenway with pretzels (BOSTON HERALD,
3/24)....Selected from more than 5,700 entries in a KANSAS CITY
STAR contest, the name of the Royals new mascot is "Slugger-r-r"
(K.C. STAR, 3/25).... Footwear stocks were the top gainers in the
Dow Jones World Industry Groups Friday, closing at 133.33, with
Nike posting a 3.1% gain (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/25)...."Extra"
noted that professional figure skating on TV, buoyed by
sponsorship from such companies as Disney and Nutra Sweet, ranks
second only to the NFL in ratings -- and revenue from shows and
competitions reached $600M in '95 ("Extra," 3/22).
