Video game company Electronic Arts has confirmed that the Obama campaign has purchased advertising space in several of its most popular games for the Xbox, including "Madden NFL 09." The ads appear as billboards or stadium signs and are downloaded when players in key battleground states log in to play the games online. Of course, this isn't a route that the average small-business owner can afford to take, but the lessons to be learned are as obvious as some of John Madden's color commentary.

Stay Ahead of the Curve
Election season never fails to bring us cool new marketing strategies. This is a perfect example. And it's as much about your image as it is about the message you choose to put out there. If you're portraying yourself as a business on the cutting edge, your marketing should reflect that.

Be Laser-Focused
Sometimes winning an election is all about turnout. Obama will be depending largely on younger voters. EA's customers? They're males, age 18-34. If he can get them off the couch to vote, he'll be in great shape. If you can get your target market fired up, you're on the right track as well.

Be Nimble and Adaptable
The coolest thing about this form of advertising (besides the whole video game thing) is that it could presumably be changed to fit whatever's going on in the campaign on a given day. You can do the same thing for your business with blogs, social networking sites and other forms of Web 2.0 marketing. Connect with your market by making them come back to see what happens next.

"The FDIC is taking this unprecedented action because we have faith in our economy, our country and our banking system," states FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair (pictured).

The unlimited insurance is being offered to prevent turmoil and to encourage entrepreneurs to retain faith in their institutions instead of shopping around for banking. Those business owners who want to take part in the new FDIC protection will be charged a 75-basis-point fee. A 10-basis-point surcharge will be added to the bank’s FDIC insurance bill as well. “The program will be funded through special fees and does not rely on taxpayer funding," Bair says.

The $250 billion infusion will be taken out of the recent $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan approved by Congress last week. The idea is to loosen up credit lines that trickle down to Main Street business owners while at the same time boosting investor confidence. About half of the money will go to major banks such as Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, while the other portion will benefit smaller institutions. Participating banks must agree to limit executive pay, and they’ll have to return a 5 percent dividend to taxpayers during the next five years.

--Dennis Romero

“We want to encourage young people across the country and around the globe to think about how their ideas can become a reality," said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, to a roomful of competitors, entrepreneurs and reporters at a press conference immediately following the ringing of the Bell. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a national sponsor of the Race to BE. along with the Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence. 

From now through the end of this month, applicants ages 18 to 29 can apply through the Race to BE. website and submit a sample of their creative work. Five finalists will be selected from the three categories and will continue on to compete in the onsite challenges. The film competition will take place in Los Angeles on Nov. 17, the music portion will be held in Austin on Nov. 19 and the fashion segment will wrap up the competition on Nov. 21. The winners will take home $5,000 each and receive a mentoring opportunity, a possible internship and enjoy post-event PR exposure for their concepts.

Race to BE. is the key U.S. event for a much bigger initiative, Global Entrepreneurship Week, taking place Nov. 17-23. The goal of the initiative is to promote worldwide entrepreneurship and generate new ideas. Thousands of activities will be organized in more than 75 countries to promote creative, innovative thinking. Companies and organizations interested in getting involved can sign up to plan an activity for the week here.

There’s no better time to promote entrepreneurship than now. “How do we get out of this economic fix?” Schramm asks. “The vast majority of Americans actually believe that entrepreneurs can do it. They don’t believe Congress can do it, they believe that entrepreneurs can do it.”

--Sara Wilson

At Melisse, one of three Michelin Guide two-star restaurants in Southern California, the flow of diners slowed down almost overnight. “Just in the last two weeks you get the feeling that everything has changed,” chef-owner Josiah Citrin (pictured) told the paper.

At the same time, costs for staples such as milk, butter and flour have gone up, the later by as much as 60 percent, according to the report. What’s more, a half empty restaurant can cost nearly as much to staff as a full one.

The economic effects are similar at other L.A.-area A-list eateries, including Tom Colicchio’s Craft, where he tries to cut costs by turning off lights and air conditioning after hours. The chef advises restaurateurs, however, never to lower their standards.

"If you're a quality restaurant, you have to continue to meet those standards,” he tells the Times. “If you don't, you're going to lose customers and they won't come back when times get better.”

-- Dennis Romero

The buying spree was designed to grease Main Street businesses and to impress the stock market, but so far it has done neither. Under the plan, the fed is vowing to purchase an unspecified amount of quick-turnaround “commercial paper” that’s issued by major corporations and financial institutions. It’s usually bought by institutional investors, but those big spenders are skittish about backing just about anything these days, including loans and stocks.

The effect has been a constricted credit market, particularly when it comes to the kinds of fast credit lines that entrepreneurs have relied on to cover spikes in expenses--payroll is a good example--when income is steady or declining. Such short-term credit is worth billions of dollars and is due within months if not weeks. But it has started to dry up as investors fret about holding the bag should a company issuing the paper go belly up, as Lehman Brothers did last month.

Sen. Barack Obama addressed the issue at last night’s presidential debate in Nashville.

“Right now, the credit markets are frozen up and what that means, as a practical matter, is that small businesses and some large businesses just can't get loans,” Obama said. “If they can't get a loan, that means that they can’t make payroll. If they can't make payroll, then they may end up having to shut their doors and lay people off.”

“And if you imagine just one company trying to deal with that,” he said, “now imagine a million companies all across the country. So it could end up having an adverse effect on everybody, and that's why we had to take action. But we shouldn't have been there in the first place.”

The Fed hasn’t put a cap on the amount of paper it will buy and, to date, hasn’t actually bought anything. Some observers think that investors will remain fearful unless they actually see the Fed taking the first step.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke (pictured above) is playing up the short-term credit rescue plan as a boon to business.

“By potentially restricting future flows of credit to households and businesses, the developments in financial markets pose a significant threat to economic growth,” he said in a speech yesterday. “ … The expansion of Federal Reserve lending is helping financial firms cope with reduced access to their usual sources of funding.”

-- Dennis Romero

“Right now, the credit markets are frozen up and what that means, as a practical matter, is that small businesses and some large businesses just can't get loans,” Obama said. “If they can't get a loan, that means that they can’t make payroll. If they can't make payroll, then they may end up having to shut their doors and lay people off.”

“And if you imagine just one company trying to deal with that,” he said, “now imagine a million companies all across the country. So it could end up having an adverse effect on everybody, and that's why we had to take action. But we shouldn't have been there in the first place.”

Later in the debate, Republican Sen. John McCain accused Obama of offering a tax plan that would weigh heavily on those very business owners. He was referring to the Democrat's plan to increase taxes on American individuals earning more than $200,000 a year, and on households taking in more than $250,000.

“Sen. Obama's secret that you don't know is that his tax increases will increase taxes on 50 percent of small business revenue,” McCain said. “Small businesses across America will have to cut jobs and will have their taxes increase and won't be able to hire because of Sen. Obama's tax policies.”

He added that Obama’s policies will result in “mandates and fines for small businesses.”

Obama defended his plan, saying it would only affect the “few percent of small businesses make more than $250,000 a year. So the vast majority of small businesses would get a tax cut under my plan.”

He added that he’s proposing tax credits that would allow entrepreneurs to afford insurance for their work forces.

“ . . . We provide a 50 percent tax credit so that they can buy health insurance for their workers, because there are an awful lot of small businesses that I meet across America that want to do right by their workers but they just can't afford it,” Obama said. “Some small-business owners, a lot of them, can't even afford health insurance for themselves.”

McCain continued to attack Obama on business, accusing the senator from Illinois of proposing an insurance plan that will levy fines on entrepreneurs who refuse to insure their employees. “If you're a small business person and you don't insure your employees, Sen. Obama will fine you,” McCain said. “Will fine you. That's remarkable.”

Obama tried to clarify his intentions. “Small businesses are not going to have a mandate,” he said.

The dueling stances toward Main Street business owners was also a contentious issue during the vice presidential debate last week, when Republican Gov. Sarah Palin also accused the Obama ticket of proposing tax hikes on “millions of small businesses.” The notion, however, was largely debunked by FactCheck.org, which states that Obama’s plan would leave the “overwhelming majority” of small-business owners without tax increases.

-- Dennis Romero

The Los Angeles Times states that DeWayne McKinney, convicted of a 1980 robbery-murder in Orange, Calif., then released two decades later because prosecutors realized he probably didn’t do it, died when his scooter hit a light pole in Honolulu about 12:30 a.m.

After his release from prison in 2000, McKinney sued the City of Orange Police Department and reaped a $1 million settlement, which he parlayed into a cottage industry of ATM machines that he placed at malls, bars and restaurants on three Hawaiian islands. The enterprise helped him build a reported $6 million net worth. The Times states that McKinney, never showing bitterness about his incarceration, had been talking to movie studio executives about turning his story into a film.

-- Dennis Romero