- The 1% Solution: Media-For-Equity in
Planning & Buying Insider on
05/01/2026
After half a century covering the media marketplace, I thought I had seen every conceivable model for funding ad-supported media buys. Until I met Piyush Puri.
- Consumer Media Spending Relatively Flat, Lack Of 'Game-Changing' Tech Cited in
MediaDailyNews on
04/30/2026
While AI is gaining consumer adoption, it is still seen only as "nice-to-have" and has not impacted discretionary spending yet, PQ Media finds in its just-released report.
- I've Got 47 Problems But 86 Ain't One in
Red, White & Blog on
04/29/2026
In American pop culture, "86" most commonly means to eject someone from the premises. But it has grown conflated with a similar-sounding mobster term "eight miles out, and six feet deep."
- Omnicom Routinizes Agentic Buys, Compresses Media Supply Chain in
MediaDailyNews on
04/29/2026
"We've already tested the pipes and have been able to have money flow through to actually buy inventory available on certain publishers," says CTO Paolo Yuvienco.
- You Should Have Seen It in
Red, White & Blog on
04/28/2026
It was a bumper sticker I spotted on a truck in my town the other day. "I grew up in a place called America," it said, implying it no longer existed. Depending on how old you are, you may or may not
agree.
- Gen Z Dominates Consumer Share Of All LLM, Especially ChatGPT in
Media 3.0 on
04/28/2026
"Nearly 80% of Gen Z accesses AI tools on their smartphones (laptops come in second place)," finds Epsilon's "The Consumer State Of AI."
- WPP Media Delivers Worst Q1 Decline, 'Enterprise Solutions' Seen Most Promising in
MediaDailyNews on
04/28/2026
WPP Media, which accounts for 41% of "unholding" company revenue, reported the worst Q1 decline: -8.5%.
- Generation Media Declares North America Its Next-Gen in
MediaDailyNews on
04/27/2026
The U.K. media independent has opened a New York City office to service its expanding U.S. client roster.
- Equal Dinner Time in
Red, White & Blog on
04/24/2026
In the spirit of fairness doctrines, this edition of "Red, White & Blog" provides links to two versions of the White House Correspondents' Dinner: the official one hosted by mentalist Oz Pearlman
Saturday night and Jimmy Kimmel's alternative version monologue from last night's episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live." You decide which is worth more of your time.
- Omnicom Unveils Daring 'Brave Bot,' Teams With Google For 'Dual-AI' Mode in
MediaDailyNews on
04/24/2026
"When they converge, something shifts: subjective creative debates disappear," touts an Omnicom spokesperson, adding: "Work becomes both effective and distinctive. Optimized for performance and built
to be remembered."
- I've Got 47 Problems But 86 Ain't One
by
Joe Mandese
(Red, White & Blog on
04/29/2026)
@Adam Buckman: Doh! Great catch. Hope there's a TVBlog in the future about that. Lift the Cone of Silence, please. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Adams#/media/File:DonAdams.jpg
- I've Got 47 Problems But 86 Ain't One
by
Joe Mandese
(Red, White & Blog on
04/29/2026)
@Dan C. from MS Entertainment: You're conveniently ignoring my "for illustration purposes only" disclaimer on Gemini's (not my) analysis. I wouldn't put statistical significance in that. As I noted there has been a conflation between the terms "86" and the lesser known/used mobster term "8 miles out 6 feet under." Perhaps my most important points were about "gaslighting" and "Mandela Effects" and the collective misremembering and twisting of reality that happens when someone like Donald Trump is using the powers of his office to distort the meaning of things, including a pop culture term like "86." It clearlly has never been meant to "kill" someone, but to get rid of someone. The real meaning of words is about the context of who, what, when, where and why people use them. If a mob hit man were using the term "86," I'd grant the meaning was to execute someone. If a top career law enforcement official who happens to be a president's political rival is using it, I believe the context was to remove that president from office. #seashells
- New Programmatic 'Transparency' Initiative Excludes Advertisers
by
Joe Mandese
(Planning & Buying Insider on
04/21/2026)
@Anthony Katsur from IAB Tech Lab: Thanks for the update. Interesting you didn't say that when you announced it and only after MediaPost pointed it out. Your release reads like a supply-side and agency-side intiative with the only reference to advertisers being a quote from an agency executive stating agencies "are responsible for navigating a massive supply chain on behalf of advertisers" -- coming years after advertisers undertook for themselves (see above). Feels like catch up, but others can read for themselves @ https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/iab-tech-lab-launches-industry-council-to-address-transparency-in-200b-us-programmatic-ad-market-302748778.html
- Nielsen: Move Along, Nothing To See Here (*)
by
Joe Mandese
(Planning & Buying Insider on
04/14/2026)
@Ed Papazian: Also for your knowledge: https://www.wsj.com/cmo-today/nbcuniversal-says-nielsen-devalues-media-companies-with-inaccurate-metrics-d2490068
- Nielsen: Move Along, Nothing To See Here (*)
by
Joe Mandese
(Planning & Buying Insider on
04/14/2026)
@Ed Papazian: For your knowledge... https://mediaratingcouncil.org/sites/default/files/News/MRC%20Releases%20Update%20on%20the%20MRC-Accredited%20Nielsen%20National%20Big%20Data%20%2B%20Panel%20Television%20Service.pdf
- Nielsen: Move Along, Nothing To See Here (*)
by
Joe Mandese
(Planning & Buying Insider on
04/14/2026)
@Ed Papazian: While the first part of your comment is definitely true, in this case, Nielsen is knowingly publishing data it knows is not accurate and misrepresents what it is giving clients now (in the form of impact data so they can make upfront planning estimates) and what they will be publishing as actual "currency" beginning this fall. They are willfully publishing data they know is not representative of the marketplace, but which happens to benefit streamers in the meantime. Read into that what you want.
- Can An Ad Industry Award Save Democracy?
by
Joe Mandese
(Red, White & Blog on
04/06/2026)
@Ed Papazian: The U.S. definitely is still characterized as a liberal democracy, but its ranking has fallen precariously in V-Dem's index. In terms of skewing democracy's weight,.the U.S. is only 4.5% of the world population.
- The Ben & Jerry's Of Tomato Sauce Brands
by
Joe Mandese
(CPG Insider on
03/31/2026)
@Dan C. from MS Enterainment: That's the thing you zero in on? I don't understand why you always comment on some personal slight instead of commenting on the overall substance of something we publish. It's like you're always looking to make a dig, and I suspect that's your real objective.Personally, I tolerate that when you do that with my commentary, because I'm editor-in-chief, but I don't understand why you're always looking to stir up some kind of personal criticism about someone posting something on MediaPost. In any case, you're entitled to express your own opinion about "sauce" vs. "gravy," but that's literally why I put the word "gravy" in quotes. It was an homage to my Italian American ancestors, not what I personally use to describe tomato sauce.In fact, my article referred to "sauce" five times and referenced "gravy" only once, and that one was in quotes.But I suppose you'll pick a fight over those quants too.
- The Ben & Jerry's Of Tomato Sauce Brands
by
Joe Mandese
(CPG Insider on
03/31/2026)
@Dan C. from MS Entertainment: Not sure why you always personalize your comments, but gravy is what the old school Italian Americans I grew up with called tomato sauce. Some of them from Arthur Avenue.https://share.google/323C3d3YEA3JySfLX
- R.I.P. NATPE: The Glory That Was Rome
by
Adam Buckman
(TVBlog on
04/01/2026)
Nice obit, Adam.NATPE was something else.I remember arriving at my first one in Las Vegas in the early 1980s, checking into the Hilton and seeing Hulk Hogan lift Vanna White over his head in the lobby. Had a dinner with some of the WWE wrestlers too, and was surprised how erudte George The Animal Steele was. I once inadvertently hit "Bud" in the groin with a metal folding chair while posing for a photo with the cast of "Married With Children." Had dinner with the drunken cast of "Facts of Life," including Cloris Leachman. Got served jambalaya straight from Chef Paul Prudhomme while sipping hurricanes and watching Chubby Checker twisting and shouting on a Mississippi steam boat in New Orleans. Got held up at gun point while walking the back allies of the French Quarter with the late great trade reporter John Higgins. And those are just the stories I can talk about. It's amazing what a spectacle it once was, but oldtimers told me it started as programmer/station sales meeting in hotel suites, long before it took over giant convention halls.