Off the books: While we are all consumed with accounting and insider trading, a very telling branding report was published by Harris Interactive recently. It shows what we all know and sometimes forget about consumer perception. And that is the inescapable fact that advertising can communicate a great brand, but there’s nothing like product quality to make a brand great. Harris measured consumer quality perceptions of more than 100 brands. You could argue that within the top ten, not one of them has the ad power of a Pepsi, Budweiser or Chevy Truck. You won’t find a soda, car or …

Does That Include That Christmas Tree Project Where My Kid Glue Gunned His Hands Together? While chopping cabbage for her weekly segment on the CBS Early Show, Martha Stewart addressed her alleged insider trading hassles, saying, "I will be exonerated of any ridiculousness."

WorldCom’s Wake: If AT&T and Sprint will benefit from the shocking accounting fraud at WorldCom, I think they need to take a new look at their ad strategies. Right now, telecom ad spending has been cut by several factors, not the least of which is the poor financial performance of almost every company in the category. Sprint has turned its focus to CRM, which is not an ad strategy at all.

You Go, Martha: I personally don’t give a fat rat’s butt about whether Martha Stewart unloaded ImClone stock on an inside tip. If she improperly handled her own stake in Omnimedia, or if she misled employees and investors about Omnimedia’s financial performance, I’d have a problem. This company has a sound business model, solid management and an attractive audience for advertisers.

Harrrruuumph!: I could do a column every day about companies and key executives doing and saying irresponsible things. I thought at first that the WPP Group gloom and doom outlook delivered yesterday fit the bill. But if they think that a public stance of “few, if any, signs of a recovery” is going to serve WPP well, then have at it. What killed me were the events WPP thinks will lead to a true rebound in 2004: The US presidential election and the 2004 Summer Olympics. Right. And I’m Tiger Woods. The US presidential election might fill the coffers of …

Buy On Bad News; Sell On Good News: That’s how you play stocks right? So today should be a red-letter day for media stocks, because Friday was all about bad news. No, I’m not naïve enough to think the “good news bad news theory” really works anymore. That adage is so 1980s. I am confident now that ad agencies seem to understand more clearly now that the stock market is not the economy.

‘No, Captain. It’s Worse Than That.’ Ted Goes Off, Part II: An observant reader pointed out to me this week that Ted Turner’s “Israel is a terrorist” quote in the UK’s The Guardian daily actually went to a higher level of political incorrectness. Keep in mind that the Pritchard referred to, is Ted’s AOL-assigned assistant whose job it is to rein in Ted.

Boom Times Around the Corner: That’s my prediction. I believe the second half of 2003 is going to mark the biggest media expansion we’ve seen since the roaring 90s. Here’s why. The FTC will announce at that time that it’s a free market. Gannett can own radio stations, TV stations and newspapers in the same market.

Useful Executive Quotes Part I: I’m going to leave some of the names out of this. But recently a friend of mine assigned her new baby one of those first names where you say: “Oh, what a neat name.” Where I come from, you had to take your name to the playground. So most parents stuck with the names of saints and kept it to one syllable. In the same way that you take your name to the playground, I believe management follows you to a sales call. So if you’re working at Viacom and you’re selling ads, maybe you …

So, tonight I’m gonna party like its 1997……Part of the problem with the ongoing debate about whether the ad industry is beginning a “comeback” is the level people are expecting it to comeback to. At some point the majority of businesspeople from Wall Street to Main Street will understand, accept and admit that the year 2000 was an aberration.