William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre for The New York Times: Sure, Disney's deal last week to acquire Pixar is about big money — how Steven P. Jobs turned a fledgling outfit that he had bought for $10 million into a juggernaut valued at $7.4 billion. And, yes, it is about a big strategic shift at the Walt Disney Company, as Robert A. Iger, the chief executive, exorcises the ghost of his predecessor, Michael D. Eisner. But it is also about the potential for big changes in how the entertainment business operates — specifically, in how major studios organize talented people to do their best work.

In the Hollywood model, the energy and investment revolves around the big idea — the script — and the fine print of the deal. Highly talented people agree to terms, do their jobs, and move on to the next project. The model allows for maximum flexibility, to be sure, but it inspires minimum loyalty and endless jockeying for advantage.

Turn that model on its head and you get the Pixar version: a tightknit company of long-term collaborators who stick together, learn from one another and strive to improve with every production.

Randy S. Nelson, dean of Pixar University said, "We've made the leap from an idea-centered business to a people-centered business. Instead of developing ideas, we develop people. Instead of investing in ideas, we invest in people. We're trying to create a culture of learning, filled with lifelong learners. It's no trick for talented people to be interesting, but it's a gift to be interested. We want an organization filled with interested people."

I was surprised last night to hear President Bush freely admit that our nation is addicted to oil and that we need to correct that problem in a hurry. He aslo admitted that we're falling behind in math and science, and that we need to address this problem to remain competitive in the global marketplace. Naturally, these issues are plain as day to anyone paying attention, but to hear the President admit to our collective weaknesses was refreshing, to say the least.

Today, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, shares his company's story:

c|net: Starting in Mississippi, Cisco is funding a $40 million program to provide technology, world-class curriculum, process changes and professional development for teachers. The ultimate goal is to use technology to create a new classroom experience where students will find that learning is a way of life. Imagine what would happen if every Fortune 500 company adopted a local region or school system?

Using the bully pulpit as only a president can, George Bush has thrown down the gauntlet on what America needs to do to remain competitive: namely, a good education system, supportive government, focus on innovation and the proper infrastructure. The metrics for success are clear. Now it's a matter of doing it.

As a professional communicator, I'm prepared to do my part. In particular, I'm highly motivated to help advance alternative energy solutions. If you know of any solar, wind or biodiesel operations that need integrated communications programs, please let me know.

Advertising for Peanuts brings our attention to yet another medium for advertising—eggs.

EggFusion of Boulder, CO seeks to "promote freshness with every impression."

With most marketing communications, consumers may briefly see or hear a message, but rarely do they tangibly engage with it. Yet with eggs, consumers hand-select, feel, break and interact with the message several times. This engagement becomes especially valuable in the kitchen as moms and dads grab eggs to use in meals and recipes for themselves and their families. It's an intimacy few mediums can match.

Live Science: After 145 years, Western Union has quietly stopped sending telegrams.

On the company's web site, if you click on "Telegrams" in the left-side navigation bar, you're taken to a page that ends a technological era with about as little fanfare as possible:

"Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative."

The decline of telegram use goes back at least to the 1980s, when long-distance telephone service became cheap enough to offer a viable alternative in many if not most cases. Faxes didn't help. Email could be counted as the final nail in the coffin.

Western Union has not failed. It long ago refocused its main business to make money transfers for consumers and businesses. Revenues are now $3 billion annually. It's now called Western Union Financial Services, Inc. and is a subsidiary of First Data Corp.

The world's first telegram was sent on May 24, 1844 by inventor Samuel Morse. The message, "What hath God wrought," was transmitted from Washington to Baltimore. In a crude way, the telegraph was a precursor to the Internet in that it allowed rapid communication, for the first time, across great distances.

On Jan. 26, the last day you could send a telegram, First Data announced it would spin Western Union off as an independent, publicly traded company.

[via Kottke]

You'd think newspapers would jump for joy when Google picks up their content and links back their original article, thereby driving mass traffic to their sites. Yet, this Reuters article shows that's not always the case.

The Paris-based World Association of Newspapers, whose members include dozens of national newspaper trade bodies, said it is exploring ways to "challenge the exploitation of content by search engines without fair compensation to copyright owners."

Web sites like Google and its specialized Google News service automatically pull in headlines, photos and short excerpts of articles from thousands of news sources, linking back to the publishers' own site. Google News does not currently carry advertising.

"They're building a new medium on the backs of our industry, without paying for any of the content," Ali Rahnema, managing director of the association, told Reuters in an interview.

"The news aggregators are taking headlines, photos, sometimes the first three lines of an article -- it's for the courts to decide whether that's a copyright violation or not."

[via Random Culture]

Marc Babej asked Douglass Rushkoff about Saatchi & Saatchi CEO, Kevin Roberts, a.k.a. "Mr. Lovemarks." Rushkoff interviewed Roberts for his PBS/Frontline documentary "The Persuaders," so it was a question, he was prepared to handle.

Kevin seems like a smart and sweet guy to me, for sure. I’ve got no problem with him. I just think his company - what’s left of the ad agency that used to be Saatchi and Saatchi - really lost its way. Their original error was leaving the ad business to become an ad conglomerate. They weren’t experts at being a holding company - the Saatchi’s were experts at shmoozing clients. So they lost the plot of their own business, and lost it.

Now, Roberts is in charge of what amounts to a boutique agency. And his way of marketing his skills is to brand them as “lovemarks.” At best, he’s doing for brands what Aristotle did for plays. Still, it has nothing to do with creating them.

Piers Fawkes got his panties all up in a wad last night.

Check this out:

What the heck? Steve Hall and gang spend Wednesday posting about a "new advertising" opportunity: advertising on eggs. Woo hoo, let's write that into the media plan shall we? Or maybe not.

I really belive that the 'Ads On Eggs' articles that have run on AdPulp, MIT, AdRants reflect the misservice that the ad blogs are providing the advertising and marketing community. First of all, advertising on eggs is not new. It's been around for years - couldn't any of the experts writing the ad blogs remember that? Secondly, it's dull. Thirdly - and most importantly - 'Ads On Eggs' is another celebration of what's wrong with advertising - disruption and personal intrusion.

As a new batch of young recruits enter the industry, you know where they're getting their industry info - from the ad blogs. I know there's lots of people working hard behind the blogs but all ad blogs seem to do is celebrate the latest (non) viral and shiny ad. While innovative voices in the industry call for the development of intelligent conversation in the marketing process, the ad blogs tend hold up any intrusive ad method as leading example fo their industry's work.

No wonder no-one likes us.

This critique is so off-base, I hardly know where to begin, or what to say. I'm shocked that it's coming from Piers, I will say that. It seems so out of character. I wrote to him and asked him what his deal is, but no response as of yet.

Normally, I would not feel the need to explain my rather obvious technique, but given the situation I feel the need. I rarely say what I think about the ad news of the day. Yes, I hint at what I think in the headlines I choose. But I leave it to you to decide. I consider that good journalism. In this specific instance, Piers must think the headline, "How To Crack Consumers Up" is an endoresement of advertising on eggs. It is not.

Lewis Lazare: In the increasingly suffocating world of corporate sponsorship, it's been a dangerous and dirty little secret for sometime now: Just about anything can be had for a few lousy dollars. On Wednesday, that truism was reaffirmed in a heart-rending way in what may well be the most repellent sponsorship deal so far in marketing history.

Desperate for funds to prop up a sagging horse racing industry, Louisville's Churchill Downs has sold -- for what amounts to a pittance -- the dignity of the Kentucky Derby, one of Churchill Downs' and the world's most historic horse races, to a Louisville-based conglomerate called Yum! Brands, that peddles, among other things, fried chicken, pizza and tacos. The publicly traded Yum! (don't forget that exclamation point!) was formed in 1997, when KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell were spun off from PepsiCo.

In his remarks Wednesday, Churchill Downs CEO Thomas Meeker tried to make much of the fact the Kentucky Derby was smartly teaming up with a company that includes among its holdings another famous Kentucky-focused brand, namely KFC. Meeker never mentioned, however, that Yum! several years ago yanked the "Kentucky" out of the chicken chain's name and rebranded it as the horrendously bland KFC.

USA TODAY: Blogs. 99-cent music downloads. Podcasts. Phoning home via the Internet. Online social networking. It's the golden age of the Internet.

But you wouldn't know it if you've just been watching Internet stocks. Outside of Google and a few other choice names, it's hard to find an Internet company that gets investors' juices flowing — let alone gets them to pull out their wallets. From a technological standpoint, the Internet has lived up to and even surpassed its wildest expectations. But investment-wise, the recent results have been a disappointment at best.

That's completely opposite from six years ago, when dot-com stocks were exciting, but the companies themselves were largely duds. Today's environment says as much about the Internet itself as about the harsh lessons investors have learned. In 2000, investors were willing to buy an Internet stock on the hopes the company, some day, might have a breakthrough product — or any product at all — and make money. That was before the bubble popped. Now investors need to see real products, real cash flow and real earnings before they'll make a move. Internet stocks have become the ultimate "show me" plays.

USA TODAY: Car-rental giant Hertz has changed its contracts to make customers responsible for damage from acts of nature.

It told its best customers last month that they'll be responsible for auto damage from natural causes such as windstorms, hurricanes and tornadoes. In the past, it was the rental firm's responsibility. Avis and Budget are moving in the same direction.

The general principle has always been that the renter is responsible for vehicle damage, Hertz spokeman, Richard Broome says. Since renters are already liable for unavoidable road accidents, it follows that they also should be liable for acts of nature, which often are foreseeable, he says.

"It's outrageous," says consumer advocate Clarence Ditlow of the Center for Auto Safety, a group founded by Ralph Nader. "Just because it's an industrywide practice, it doesn't make it fair."

California and Wisconsin have laws prohibiting rental companies from placing liability on consumers for acts of nature, Broome says. New York and Indiana have laws prohibiting the placing of liability on consumers for flood damage.

USA TODAY: Critics must be thrilled that the splashiest Oscar nominations Tuesday went to high-minded yet low-budget and mostly R-rated films.

But those who follow the money gave mixed reviews to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' best-picture finalists: Brokeback Mountain; Capote; Crash; Good Night, and Good Luck; and Munich.

The films, targeted to relatively narrow audiences, might not attract lots of fans to the March 5 Oscar show on ABC with first-time host Jon Stewart.

Some on Wall Street say that overlooking big films with big stars — such as Tom Cruise's War of the Worlds, Johnny Depp's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's Mr. & Mrs. Smith— also risks leaving audiences yawning at the awards. The broadcast could suffer if such celebrities merely walk the red carpet or don't show up at all.

Yet, Coca-Cola, back on the Academy Awards after seven years' hiatus, is unfazed. "We view the Oscars as destination programming and a great place to feature advertising for our brands," says spokeswoman Susan McDermott.

Others say the famously box-office-minded Academy for once might be ahead of the curve by spotlighting films about complex issues and people.

"One of the biggest complaints about 2005 was that the movies weren't that good," says Exhibitor Relations President Paul Dergarabedian. "But these movies highlight the fact that Hollywood does have something to offer."

Budweiser does not get everything right. They've run countless lowest-common-denominator commercials, of late. They've engaged Miller in a battle they have no business taking part in (only challenger brands stand to gain from such activities). But this latest piece of news from Media Daily News reveals that someone in St. Louis "gets it."

In a move that's sure to cause a stir at ABC, as well as the other major networks, long-time Super Bowl advertiser Anheuser-Busch will use its buy in ABC's coverage of the game on Sunday to launch its own direct-to-consumer network. Details of the strategy are still under wraps, but the new channel, code-named "The Bud Screen," will debut sometime during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XL, offering viewers the opportunity to download advertising, programming and branded entertainment content directly to their computers, iPods and other devices.

"This changes the whole concept of broadcasting out to consumers. Typically media companies have done that. With the Internet, we blow out that old model and enable advertisers to reach consumers directly without having the media companies sell the ad space," says Hilmi Ozguc, CEO of Maven, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company that will power the new Bud channel.

If you're going to do branded entertainment, why not own the distribution channel too? I've said for years that projects like a branded internet radio station presents a huge opportunity to deliver brand-relevant content, 24/7, at a cost light years away from traditional media buys.

I'll be interested to see what kind of content Bud begins this journey with, but even if it sucks, it doesn't matter all that much. What matters is the fact that a beer behemoth is now also a media company (something former Coca-Cola COO, Steven Heyer, called for in 2003).

[via Adrants]

Adweek: Users receiving RSS feeds are much more likely to click on feed advertising than regular Web ads, according to a new study.

Pheedo, a San Francisco company that helps publishers put ads in their Really Simple Syndication feeds, found that RSS ads received a 3.2 percent to 8 percent click-through rate during a study of traffic during the fall. Banner ads typically receive a click rate of less than 1 percent.

The best-performing RSS placements, Pheedo found, were stand-alone ads that represented the entire post, rather than embedded ads placed below editorial content. Standalone ads were clicked 8 percent, compared to .85 percent for the embedded approach.

Pheedo said the highest RSS ad click rates were gained by placing ads in every other post, a tactic it found three times more effective than one ad per post.

[In Related News] Pheedo and PRWeb have agreed to place press release headlines in Pheedo RSS ads.

Ad Age: Coke may think the monster truck-cum-pied piper in its Full Throttle spot plays the hero, but America’s truckers are calling it reckless and have begun a letter-writing campaign to Coke demanding the ad be changed or dropped.

The spot was created by Mother/New York.

“Every year somebody in Madison Avenue gets lazy and does the old scary truck cliche. This year it was Coca-Cola,” said Mike Russell, VP-public affairs for the American Trucking Association. He cited a blaring air horn, a rearview mirror filled with a Peterbilt grill, a larger truck tailgating and forcing a smaller truck -- adorned with rival Red Bull -- off the main road and a driver yelling "Yahoo!” as the truck drives by.

“It’s taking every negative stereotype about the trucking industry and using it to sell a product,” continued Mr. Russell. “It totally ignores the trucking industry and the 3 million drivers who do their job safely every day. It’s the same as putting billboards on the sides of our truck and saying ‘Coke makes you ill. Drink Pepsi.’”

Since truckers have helped make energy drinks the hottest segment of the non-alcoholic beverage industry, the pushback is serious. Mr. Russell said he contacted Coke last week about the spot but got a “lukewarm” response as Coke claimed the truck was a hero and a pied piper.

“It’s more of a demolition derby with a truck leading it,” he added. “I fail to see how this sells Full Throttle.”

[via Ilya Vedrashko]

Average humans who start a blog load the software to their server, or if that's too complicated they sign up for one of the hosted services. Then they commence posting. And that about wraps up the startup.

the Trotts

Nick Denton and his Gawker crew are an entriely different beast. When they launch a new media prop, it's drinks for everyone. Everyone that's anyone, that is.

Adfreak's Tim Nudd points to AOL's new instant messaging campaign, which makes use of the phrase, I AM.

Clever, right? Maybe. But it's none too appealing to the devout, who listen to the thunder shout, "I AM!"

World Net Daily: AOL customer, Ian Millar wonders if any of AOL's marketing and planning directors ever went to Christian Sunday school or attended Jewish services.

He points out to AOL executives that "I AM" is the English translation of YaHWeH, the self-proclaimed name of God.

"He is the Creator and Savior of the world," explains Millar. "He alone is to be worshipped. To take His name in vain, or use as a common thing is blasphemy, a vulgar sin of offense. Perhaps you have not read the Third Commandment, since they have removed it from so many public monuments in the last decade. But breaking it as a means of marketing your products offends the mind of everyone who worships Him."

Brandweek: The Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau wants to get the word out that the Texas city welcomes everyone unconditionally.

The bureau's new Web site launched this week, glbtdallas.com, features content for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender travelers including GLBT TAG- (Travel Alternatives Group) Approved hotels—now standing at 16 properties—and other gay-friendly restaurants, art museums and cultural venues. Other information includes GLBT resources, event calendars, photo posts and nightlife features.

"Oak Lawn, our GLBT neighborhood, is out, proud, always bustling and full of things to do," said Ross Crusemann, svp-marketing for the Dallas CVB. "Our city has the sixth-largest gay population in the United States, and we score the highest among the nation's 10 largest cities based on the gay index."

The gay index is a study published by Gary Gates, a demographer at the Urban Institute.

Bart Cleveland, of McKee Wallwork Cleveland, sounds like a good boss.

One of my daily goals is to take a walk around the agency and talk to everyone. I really just want to observe how they’re feeling. I want to encourage an excitement within each of them to do something great. Going from good to great is like growing apples, you have to prune and fertilize and water and wait. The waiting part is really hard for me. But if you do all of the things that help, you don’t have to wait long.

Bart has worked at Fahlgren and Saatchi and Saatchi, and in 1998 joined Sawyer Riley Compton as Sr. Vice President, Executive Creative Director. I'm not sure when he moved to New Mexico.

I wonder if the mucky mucks at Avon read Beauty Dish, "true underground adventures of an Avon lady." If they read it today they'll see that men have a hard time navigating Avon.com.

My Turkish friend, Ulak, called me early this morning.

"Birdie! I need more of that cologne!" His voice sounded husky, swollen with sleep. "The Avon. Please, Birdie. I need it now. The RPM cologne."

I inhaled, watched my youngest son swallow oatmeal, remembered how Ulak used cologne under his arms in place of deodorant.

"Ulak, just order it online. If you input my telephone number at checkout I'll get the credit. You'll probably get it quicker than if you get it through me as my order went in last night."

I should have known better. Ulak called back ten minutes later, a Turkish tornado of stress and confusion.

"Birdie. Have you been to this Avon.com site? Have you? This is no place for a man. I can not find any section for men. I do not wish to look at all the items for women."

I sighed, accused Ulak of exaggerating, of morning fuzz, of tired eyes. I clicked over to the site myself, Ulak's breath in my ear, and blinked with surprise.

"Wow, Ulak. You're right. I never noticed this before. No section for men."

I stared at the home page, at Salma's pristine celebrity smile, clicked over to "online shopping" only to be greeted with Avon's top female goodies, no link for a man, no shaving cream or soap-on-a-rope or cologne icon to make a guy feel at home.

Well damn, Avon. What's up with that?

Golf Today: Tiger Woods, 30, has agreed to buy a 10-acre oceanfront estate on Jupiter Island, Florida, for 38 million dollars.

Woods, a 10-time major golf champion, led all US athletes with 89.4 million dollars in endorsements and prize money in 2004 and set a record sale price for a property in what Forbes magazine calls the nation's "Most Expensive ZIP Code."

The 400 block of South Beach Road that Woods would own extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the nearby Intracoastal Waterway. It includes a main house, two guest houses and a beach house plus two boat docks.

Woods' 155-foot yacht "Privacy", which the golf star now docks in North Palm Beach, could be docked in one of the deep water docks, sources told the newspaper.

Woods and his wife, Swedish model Elin Nordegren, became interested in the area because Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik and his wife Mia live nearby. Nordegren had been a nanny for Parnevik when she met Woods in 2003.

Marc Babej has skills. Few people have ever interviewed David Ogilvy, Rosser Reeves and Bill Bernbach in one sitting, and no one has done so posthumously. Until now...

Babej: What do you think of advertising that sells lifestyles or attitudes?

Bill Bernbach: “The magic is in the product… No matter how skillful you are, you can’t invent a product advantage that doesn’t exist. And if you do, and it’s just a gimmick, it’s going to fall apart anyway.”

Rosser Reeves: “The writer must make the product itself interesting. Otherwise, a great part of his ingenuity and inventiveness will be used in devising tricks which lower the efficiency of advertising, rather than raising it.”

David Ogilvy: “If you spend your advertising budget entertaining the consumer, you’re a bloody fool. Housewives don’t buy a new detergent because the manufacturer told a joke on television last night. They buy the new detergent because it promises a benefit.”

I'm so glad they've cleared this up. From Ad Age, although it's a subject that seems ripe for The Onion:

It’s now officially OK to show people drinking and people flirting in beer ads.

The Beer Institute, as part of its move toward industry-self regulation, is modifying its advertising code for the first time since 2003. The changes allow brewers to show drinking and “romantic interactions,” within limits, in advertising. The new code also defines humor, parody and satire for the first time as something “readily identifiable as such by reasonable adults of legal drinking age” and requires brewer audits to assure placements are in media reaching a 70% adult audience.

“Advertising and marketing materials should not depict situations where beer is being consumed rapidly, excessively, involuntarily, as part of a drinking game or as a result of a dare,” the new guideline says.

And while continuing to ban suggestions that sexual conquests could be a result of beer drinking, the code now draws a tighter line. Ads “may contain romantic or flirtatious interactions but should not portray sexually explicit activity as a result of consuming beer,” the code now says, replacing the previous guideline that “beer advertising and marketing materials should not portray sexual passion, promiscuity or any other amorous activity as a result of consuming beer.”

Picture, if you will, an executive boardroom at The Beer Institute, where smartly dressed professionals with legal pads and PowerPoint slides were discussing the Beer Advertising Code. With a straight face.

They must've been smoking something.

Flickr founder, Caterina Fake, defends Yahoo (her employer), while perfectly summing up the frustrations I too feel around various aspects* of an open system media.

I've been watching all the blathering about Yahoo! giving up search dominance to Google, which, I might add, is bullshit. Quotes taken out of context by company executives do not an overarching business strategy make. This is exactly the kind of thing that most annoys me about blogs (and, I guess, media in general): the piling on, as also noticed by Jeff Clavier and Thomas Hawk, among others. Based on this sensationalistic headline, Steve Rubel says he has stopped using Yahoo! Search.

People!! Try to keep your knees from jerking! Of course, doing the legwork is a lot harder than jumping to conclusions, in the Olympiad of life.

*Trackback spam, handmade comment spam, churlish comments from anonymous sources and the biggest problem of all--jumping to conclusions without a firm grasp of the facts

I'm an unabashed Apple fan and Mac user, but this column on Wired News by Leander Kahney is quite an interesting read, talking about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, their success, their charitable works, and their images.

Gates is the cutthroat capitalist. A genius maybe, but one more interested in maximizing profits than perfecting technology. He's the ultimate vengeful nerd. Ostracized at school, he gets the last laugh by bleeding us all dry.

On the other hand, Jobs has never seemed much concerned with business, though he's been very successful at it of late. Instead, Jobs has been portrayed as a man of art and culture. He's an aesthete, an artist; driven to make a dent in the universe.

But these perceptions are wrong. In fact, the reality is reversed. It's Gates who's making a dent in the universe, and Jobs who's taking on the role of single-minded capitalist, seemingly oblivious to the broader needs of society.

Gates is giving away his fortune with the same gusto he spent acquiring it, throwing billions of dollars at solving global health problems. He has also spoken out on major policy issues, for example, by opposing proposals to cut back the inheritance tax.

In contrast, Jobs does not appear on any charitable contribution lists of note. And Jobs has said nary a word on behalf of important social issues, reserving his talents of persuasion for selling Apple products.

While Kahney admits it's certainly possible that Jobs may be more private in his giving, he believes there's a disconnect there--especially considering Apple's past advertising.

To the best of my knowledge, in the last decade or more, Jobs has not spoken up on any social or political issue he believes in -- with the exception of admitting he's a big Bob Dylan fan.

Rather, he uses social issues to support his own selfish business goals. In the Think Different campaign, Jobs used cultural figures he admired to sell computers -- figures who stuck their necks out to fight racism, poverty, inequality or war.

This brings up lots of interesting questions. Has Gates' very public charity efforts been his way of making Microsoft seem less evil? Should Jobs do more personally to reflect the iconoclastic Apple brand he's built? Do either of these guys have any responsibility at all to give back to the community?

Valentine's Day is fast approaching. Naturally, twice today I've seen this spot for Vermont Teddy Bear. It's a one-minute direct response spot narrated by Adam Corolla: "For about the price of a dozen roses, a Vermont Teddy Bear keeps giving and giving."

This is just so...so...direct. Does it work on you?

Spike Jones points to this iMedia Connection article on Super Bowl expenditures--a cool $2.5 mil per 30 second time slot. The writer, Brad Berens poses the question, "How might this money be better spent?" It's far from a rhetorical question, for Berens asks 28 qualified people to respond.

Gay Warren Gaddis, President and CEO of T3 (The Think Tank) says:

Instead, take what is more like $4 million ($2.5 in media plus another $1.5 for production) and put it into an online experience that generates a deeper engagement with a more select group of individuals -- something people will spend minutes with, visit again, and forward into their social networks (adding the credibility of a personal endorsement). For that budget, you can build one amazing online experience with video, audio, games, transactional elements, talk value, and media support. You'll make a deeper impression. You'll leave change on the table, too.

I couldn't agree more. Although, I might drill deeper and specifically say I'd spend the money to create a branded internet radio station, complete with blog and all variety of podcasts. Under "normal circumstances" that would not require $2.5 mil. But what I have in mind will take that kind of money, because the station will develop original programming. Hence, most of the money will go to the talent--writers, DJs, musicians, etc.--needed to make it great.

Ernie Schenck is up by 34 votes in Ad-Rag's Battle of the Adblogs. The score is currently AdPulp 203, Ernie 237.

Frankly, I'll be glad when this beauty contest is over on Friday. I'm tired of clicking over there to see the score.

Isn't vanity a sin? I'm pretty sure it is, although I'm rusty in theology.

Anyway, what is this common yen for recognition? I have it, Ernie has it, George has it...

Salt Lake Tribune: Football fans have always enjoyed watching replays, especially during the Super Bowl. Now they will be able to watch replays of the Super Bowl's commercials, among other special treats.

New technologies are changing how marketers are approaching the game - typically the biggest day of the year for Madison Avenue. The roughly 40 glossy big-budget spots to run during the game on ABC today - at a record average cost of $2.5 million for each 30 seconds - will also be available on Web sites such as espn.com, nfl.com, video.google.com and video.yahoo.com; as video-on-demand programs on digital cable; for downloading to PCs and video iPods; and on Sprint cell phones.

In the past, fans of the commercials could see only pirated versions, posted haphazardly and clandestinely. Now advertisers, seeking to capitalize on that interest, want to make the spots widely and easily accessible.

[Pre-Game Pre-Ramble]

USA TODAY provides a list of Super Bowl ads, complete with a one-line synopsis for each.

Some of the spots don't sound too good.

Ameriquest: Patient's family walks in on medical misunderstanding.

Budweiser: Sheep is a big fan of big game.

CareerBuilder: Chimps celebrate strong sales quarter.

Gillette: Five-blade razor is a top secret until now.

GM Hummer: Monsters marry and have a Hummer baby.

Michelob Ultra Amber: Touch football gets ugly.

Paramount: Ads promote Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible III.

[1st Quarter Stats]

- Crispin Porter's "old Hollywood" Burger King spot. Mildly humorous in an over-the-top fashion. But where's the flame-broiled burger?

- Fed Ex caveman spot. I like it. Best spot so far. It dramatizes the brand promise in a smart, memorable manner. Love the line about Fed Ex not being invented yet not being an acceptable excuse (for not sending the package via Fed Ex).

- Diet Pepsi's "brown and bubbly" P. Diddy spot. Catchy tune that fans can sing along with.

- (3) Bud Light spots. Sophmoric humor is alive and well. No surprise there.

[2nd Quarter Stats]

- Caddilac couture. Escalade as fashion icon. Whatever. It's a truck.

- Dove's self-esteem campaign. Great message. Good to see during the testosterone fest.

- Ford's Kermit the frog spot for its new hybrids. Interesting approach--if you grew up watching Sesame Street, buy Detroit green.

[3rd Quarter Stats]

- Fabio's Nationwide Insurance spot. A gross way to say time flies (so you better buy insurance).

- Hummers little monster. Clever and dramatic, but strange, maybe even a little disturbing.

[4th Quarter Stats]

- Emerald Nuts. Winner of the "We're weirder than those other nuts!" award.

- HeresToBeer.com. Preaching to the choir in this context, but the spot delivers an effective, believable message--that beer is the universal beverage.

[Post-Game Recap]

This year's commercials were uneventful through and through, with only a few bright spots, which is hard to understand on some level. When you have 90 million viewers paying attention, you better have something to say. Go Daddy, a firm that made a bang last year with their Congressional hearing spoof, had nothing coherent to say this year. What a waste.

Lewis Lazare also liked the Fed Ex "stick" spot from last night's big game.

But Lazare loses me soon thereafter, as he believes the Escalade spot, and the Ameriquest Mortgage hospital spot are "touchdowns." Ameriquest's key message, "don't judge too quickly" does come across loud and clear in the spot, but I question the appropriateness of death bed "humor" used to deliver the message.

Stuart Elliott of The New York Times, was also more generous than I.

The Burger King Corporation offered a twisted, over-the-top tribute to Busby Berkeley, the movie musical maven, by way of "Springtime for Hitler" from "The Producers." The hilarious spot presented chorus girls dressed as Whopper ingredients, piling atop each other to simulate the making of a sandwich. Let's hope there is a sequel next year honoring Berkeley's big number from "Dames," retitled "I Only Have Fries for You."

Elliott redeems himself somewhat with this critique:

The creation of the new Gillette Fusion razor, sold by Procter & Gamble, was compared to the effort of master fusion, the process that powers the sun. Really. No kidding. This smug, self-important spot may be the most bombastic since a campaign that peddled the 1957 Mercury as "dynamite from Detroit!"

USA TODAY readers liked the Bud Light "secret fridge" spot best. While there have been many funny executions in this campaign over the years, the idea that Bud Light is so good it needs to be hidden and/or horded is ludicrous.

For the crowning achievement in Super Bowl 40 ad criticism, you'll need to jump over to Soxaholix. Believe me, it's well worth the click.

John Bell, Vice President and Creative Director at Ogilvy PR, invited me to take part in Morph, a new group blog sponsored by The Media Center, a provocative, future-oriented, nonprofit think tank. Part of the American Press Institute, The Media Center agitates for dialog and action towards the creation of a better-informed society.

In my initial post, I talk about trust, honesty and authenticity being on the rise.

For years, we've concerned ourselves with the brand's image. We've been obsessed by the face, when it's the heart that matters most. Today's personal-media environment forces us to be also concerned with the brand's true identity and "real voice," the one its customer-facing employees use every day.

The blog is organized in four parts—We Influence, We Lead, We Imagine and We Live. I post to the We Influence section, along with Steve Rubel, Russell Davies, Ilya Vedrashko, Hans Kullin, Birdie Jaworski, Kelly Mooney, Chris Perry, Jeremy Wagstaff, Alison Byrne Fields, Paul Rand and David Vinjamuri.

There are several other interesting writers contributing to the other sections of the Media Center blog.

API is also behind BusinessJournalism.org, LearningNewsroom.org and NewspaperNext.org.

Supported by media companies like Reuters and Associated Press--API is a place for sharing of ideas, of experiences, of the most successful strategies and operating techniques from the best news companies in the world. At the heart of this process are hundreds of women and men - an experienced, talented collection of media professionals, management consultants, executives and academics. They volunteer their time and talents for the benefit of those dedicated to this business of news.

Barbara Lippert: Let's start with the lowest of the low: GoDaddy.com. Talk about a $5 million vanity project (so bad they had to run it twice). This complete mess was what it took Bob Parsons 14 tries with ABC to get through—a bunch of cliché-smarmy boy executives rehashing the wonder of last year's GoDaddy commercial? Message to clients: ad agencies actually supply an idea and a framework for a spot, so maybe you should use them. Was the geezer senator getting a second round of oxygen this year or last year? It doesn't really matter: he might have required oxygen, but this "sequel" was D.O.A.

Money: In its ad blitz announcing the first ever Intel-based Macs, Apple skewers PCs -- which happen to be Intel's biggest customers.

While Apple is known for controversial ads, the newest spot puts Intel in a potentially uncomfortable spot. Clearly, Intel is happy that its newest customer -- one that's especially rich on cultural cachet at the moment -- wants to celebrate the partnership, and gets some extra advertising to boot. But the commercial also takes a swing at Intel-based PCs, which some analysts believe could alienate Intel's other customers.

In the spot, an announcer intones that for years, Intel chips have been "trapped" inside "dull little boxes, dutifully performing dull little tasks," and concludes with the announcement that Intel chips have finally been "set free, and get to live life inside a Mac."

But those "dull little boxes" -- PCs -- are still Intel's bread and butter.

Intel spokeswoman Claudine Mangano declined to discuss the reaction to the commercial from Intel's other customers, including Dell and HP, citing a policy of not publicly discussing the details of relationships with their customers. She wouldn't address the issue of whether the ad created any friction, and maintained that Intel is pleased with the commercial.

"We think it's a cool ad," she said, while taking pains to point out that the commercial was created by Apple alone, without any input from Intel. "We're pleased Apple featured Intel in the ad; we think it's a great way to let people know there are new products available that feature our technology."

NYT: Companies will soon have to buy the electronic equivalent of a postage stamp if they want to be certain that their e-mail will be delivered to many of their customers.

America Online and Yahoo, two of the world's largest providers of e-mail accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must promise to contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk being blocked entirely.

The Internet companies say that this will help them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-theft scams and other scourges that plague users of their services. They also stand to earn millions of dollars a year from the system if it is widely adopted.

AOL and Yahoo will still accept e-mail from senders who have not paid, but the paid messages will be given special treatment. On AOL, for example, they will go straight to users' main mailboxes, and will not have to pass the gantlet of spam filters that could divert them to a junk-mail folder or strip them of images and Web links. As is the case now, mail arriving from addresses that users have added to their AOL address books will not be treated as spam.

Yahoo and AOL say the new system is a way to restore some order to e-mail, which, because of spam and worries about online scams, has become an increasingly unreliable way for companies to reach their customers, even as online transactions are becoming a crucial part of their businesses.

Tim Redmond of San Francisco Bay Guardian is not a big fan of Craig, nor his list.

Craig Newmark, the stumbling, self-effacing creator of Craigslist, was the keynote speaker at last weekend's Association of Alternative Newsweeklies conference in San Francisco. It was an odd choice: Most trade associations don't invite someone who is costing members millions of dollars and who is often described as the number one enemy of their profession to show up and give an address. But AAN is an unusual trade group, and there he was.

So I made sure I got to ask a question.

How, exactly, does a San Francisco outfit moving into, say, Burlington, Vt. and threatening to eviscerate the local alternative newspaper, help build community?

Craig's answer: I only go where people want me.

I've got no problem with Craig making money. He revolutionized advertising, and that's not entirely a bad thing. If he wants to build an empire, that's his right under the (warped) rules of American capitalism.

But don't give me this community-building bullshit.

Anil Dash calls Redmond's editorial "a blatant example of scapegoating horseshit."