It was a long year. We have recession that is flirting with Depression. The near collapse of the U.S. auto industry. The election of Barack Obama, the first African-American President of the United States; a man whose middle name is...

Fox News racked up its seventh straight year as the most-watched cable news channel, delivering an average prime-time viewership of 2.1 million, 40% more than 2007, according to data released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. CNN placed second with 1.3...

As I followed a link for a story about how diet soda can make people gain weight, I was somewhat surprised to find an ad featuring Oprah Winfrey's somewhat slenderized face hawking an Acai berry diet, I thought...huh? The...

Every year, somebody sends me some fruit and candy from Harry & David or some such mail-order operation. Let me tell the world...NOBODY WANTS THIS! These boxes and baskets of fruit is the same stuff you can get at...

Public relations done well is as much a key ingredient to marketing and brand management as advertising. And often, it is a greater, more important ingredient than the ad plan. At least it should be. But it often isn’t seen...

The JC Penney "Doghouse Video" is just the right use of viral video from a big advertiser. Created by Saatchi & Saatchi, the long-form video has just enough edge that wouldn't make it into the inspid TV ads that get...

The Detroit Free Press reported today that General Motors, in its attempt to put forth a workable restructuring plan to keep it from going bankrupt, is looking at killing off three brands—Pontiac, Saab and Hummer. Everyone knows that GM...

Last night a Guns N’ Roses-obsessed friend of mine sent me an email: “Don’t forget to burn Dr. Pepper today for doubting Axl.” He was referring, of course, to the soda brand’s smug promise that it would give a free...

This sponsored link was at the top of my Gmail account this morning: It leads to this Michelle-inspired J. Crew landing page. Cool, huh? Public relations meets direct advertising. I bet a brand could do several unofficial, targeted "endorsements" like...

One thing about history is that it's great for news-stand sales. I stopped at six outlets in my town of Ann Arbor, MI and everyone was cleaned out of every local and national newspaper by 8:30. Could be that...

Dennis Leary is the new voice of the Ford F-Series pickup truck. The new effort, from WPP’s Team Detroit, attempts to leave behind the ubiquitous feats of strength one-upmanship that seems to have dominated pickup advertising in the past few...

I think The New York Times' David Brooks is about the most readable conservative writer of our times. But his column today stopped me after the second paragraph. “Nov. 4, 2008, is a historic day because it marks the end...

Now that I have seen a TV ad from Starbucks, I wonder why it took the chain so long to embrace regular TV advertising. The coffee chain broke its first TV ad from new ad agency BBDO on Saturday Night...

While everybody wants to know who will win the presidential election Tuesday night, advertisers want to know when the winner will be declared, i.e. the moment when millions of consumers zap off their TV sets and stop watching ads. Ad...

I was watching the 10/31 installment of "Real Time With Bill Maher" during which the discussion naturally centered on the election. Guest and conservative commentator Amy Holmes, who is a contributor to CNN, was insinuating that Barack Obama has a...