• by John Gaffney , May 30, 2002

Sir Riffs: I doubt Sir Martin Sorrell has a lot of time on his hands. As worldwide head of the WPP Group, I doubt he has any time on his hands. So why did he use an interview with The Wall Street Journal to bemoan the current economic state of advertising? Here’s part of what he said: “A lot of media owners have called the turn two or three times in the last year. They've been saying things are improving and they haven't. We haven't seen anything. In fact, until today -- January through April -- we haven't seen anything that leads us to believe that there's been a significant change.” I don’t know enough about the inner workings at WPP to pass judgment on why that is. But here’s a couple of things I do know. One: downturns start with whispers. The whispers about an ad crash, by my estimation, started sometime around the beginning of 2000. Two: Comebacks start with whispers. The whispers are over in this case. Comeback talk is at casual conversation level. Brands are competing, planning and aggressively wanting to grow again. They’re finding new ways of advertising and promotion to do that. The pure data evidence of an ad comeback is still shaky. But the evidence on the street is strong. I don’t know what purpose is served by a leading ad executive using a major editorial forum to water that down........

Cantor Riffs: Cantor-Fitzgerald, decimated on Sept. 11, is not shy about its tragic experience in its new TV ads. If you haven’t heard, they’re actually bold in showing employees who describe their experience of that day, and the colleagues they lost. I don’t have a problem with them confronting the events of that day. It’s something every brand will have to reckon with at some point this summer. My problem is the branding strategy. You want your brand to emotionally resonate in advertising, but you also want to show why it’s a great brand. I think CF went too heavy on emotional resonance. Now they need to show why people should invest with them........

Bad Agency Website Riffs: Why are advertising agency websites so difficult to navigate? You guys put up design and navigation under your own brand name that you’d never approve for a client. Tiny type, vague links, minimal contact information – I’m surprised. Needed to vent that. Go ahead. Fill up my inbox. Make my Friday.