Life is easy; measuring the rate of media consumption in retail stores is hard. So hard, in fact, that several multinational organizations, including VNU/Nielsen and Point-of-Purchase Advertising International (POPAI), have spent more than a year simply trying to figure out what it is that they're trying to measure, as have dozens of smaller enterprises.

In the ruins of Pompeii, archeologists have discovered graffiti that could very well be the beginning of advertising.

Taking marketing work sure isn't easy. The fractured media landscape and continuing evolution of the Internet as a marketing environment has exponentially increased the complexity of managing consumer demand.

The mob of active, energetic Boomers is not about to thin out. Boomers may be aging, but it's the Boomer approach to aging that matters, not the number of candles on their birthday cakes.

For those of us in the industry who annually suffer a hangover after the marketing binges of the holiday season - from both creating and consuming an excess of brand messages - there is an antidote. And I'm not talking Advil.

Are we ignoring core principles in favor of our egos? It's hard to debate that partnerships are central to sound business strategy.

When you work in advertising and media circles, the thought of retail communications can be a dull one, bringing to mind uninspired point-of-sale displays and staff push tactics. Retail executions from the same said agencies are, for the most part, produced as an afterthought, often containing the same messaging as the rest of a campaign as though a consumer will behave with all touch points in the same way.

Where should the smart money go in today's über-cluttered digital landscape? With so many options, hype and pressure for ROI, marketers can freeze up in choosing where to invest in emerging media and technology. At the risk of choosing wrong, they wait - a risk in itself.

In late 2007, Bob Dylan and his music were back on television. Nope, not a concert special or another lingerie campaign, but in a Cadillac Escalade commercial.

When baby boomers came of age there were less than a dozen broadcast stations, and color was a novelty. Shows aired at prescribed times, replay meant waiting months or years, if at all; and, then, one had to watch a whole re-broadcast, not just the parts one wanted.