Where's Martha?

The holiday advertising campaign for Kmart Corp. (Troy, Mich.) has ads for the Martha Stewart Everyday line of tree ornaments, wrapping paper and Christmas stockings in an array of themes and colors. But nowhere in the ads is Stewart herself, who has usually been front and center in the past. Instead, her voice is heard while a festive Santa Claus appears inside a snow globe on the screen, along with a fully decorated Christmas tree and examples of the products.

This is the first visible sign that Kmart, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, may be trying to limit the association shoppers make between the store and what had been its most successful partner.

Stewart, of course, is under investigation by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for her sale of nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems last December. She made the trade the day before an announcement that sent the price of ImClone plummeting.

In the Martha Stewart ad, “the featured performer is Santa,” said a Kmart spokesman. He added that the decision to use Santa instead of Martha came about because Kmart wanted to focus on the products, not necessarily on decorating. The investigation “was not something that came into consideration,” he said. “We wanted what was best for the products, and what highlighted the products most accurately.”

Sharon Patrick, the president of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (New York), said Stewart had appeared in all but two of the 26 television ads made for Kmart since 1997, including one that appeared last month for a white sale. She said she also considered Stewart present in the current ad. “There's no doubt it's Martha,” she said.