"With congressional Democrats readying probes into oil companies' profits and eyeing legislation aimed at curbing global warming, the American Petroleum Institute and its K Street allies are looking to assemble a $100 million war chest to rally policy makers and public opinion to their side," reports Peter Stone. "The image and education effort, much of which will be coordinated by the PR firm Edelman, will include expensive television, radio, and print ads, tours of oil patch facilities for lawmakers and opinion elites, and financial contributions to sympathetic think tanks and industry-friendly organizations." API has also been using the services of Wirthlin Worldwide, headed by former Ronald Reagan pollster Richard Wirthlin, as it scrambles "to salvage a reputation suffering amid high gasoline prices and concern about fossil-fuel dependence."

The American Academy of Pediatrics has become the latest organisation to call for a ban on the advertising of junk food during children's television programs. "Healthy foods are advertised less than 3 per cent of the time," noted Donald Shifrin, the chairman of the committee that produced the new policy, which calls for the removal of junk food ads during children's programs, along with restrictions on ads for tobacco, alcohol and drugs for erectile dysfunction.