Advertising Roundup: Hyundai at the Oscars, Google on Games, and More

Hyundai buys up GM's Oscar ad time -- As General Motors takes an ax to its advertising budget, Hyundai is ready to fill the void. The South Korean car company has quickly snapped up all of the Oscar spots that GM had purchased and then abandoned. Meanwhile, this year's Oscars scored its lowest Nielsen ratings on record. [Source: AdAge]

Google launches AdSense for online video games -- Adweek reports that Google is making an aggressive play into the still nascent world of gaming ads. Game publishers will be able to add video, display, and text ads to games, but at launch, the service will be limited to publishers with a minimum standard of traffic. [Source: Adweek]

Magazines deliver better ROI than TV -- According to a new study by Marketing Evolution, "dead tree" publications still provide the most cost-effective way to influence consumers, beating out both TV and the Web. [Source: MediaPost]

Political ad spending sets new record -- Though political advertising dollars, which include presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial races, likely won't hit initial estimates this year, the grand total is still expected to come in at $2.5 billion -- a new record. Analysts say one factor that affected the total was the spending cap on John McCain's campaign, a condition that comes with accepting public funding. [Source: Mediaweek]