by John Gaffney on May 30, 12:00 AM
And The Rest Is History or The Ad Business Was Never The Same:Roche this week commemorated the 40th anniversary of Valium Tablets, the nation's most prescribed drug between 1969 and 1982. Discovered by Roche scientist Leo Sternbach, who recently turned 95 years old, and approved by the FDA in 1963, Valium was one of the first blockbuster medications in the pharmaceutical industry.
by John Gaffney on May 29, 12:00 AM
Stats Don't Lie: A lot of good news stories get lost in this upfront hoopla. One crossed my desk yesterday.
by John Gaffney on May 28, 12:00 AM
Cable's Time: I was talking with someone last week who opined that the key to whether or not the cable networks could grab their due upfront money this year would depend on their ability to show that their audience was still growing. Well, two things have happened.
by John Gaffney on May 27, 12:00 AM
This Just In: I go to this little coffee shop every morning on Route One in a small Connecticut town. And every morning there's a group of five or six older women sitting over coffee and danish talking about somebody's relatives or maybe some more important news of the day.
by John Gaffney on May 23, 12:00 AM
Other People's Riffs For May 23 $90 Million? LeBron James Got Nothin' On This Kid: A loser to Nike in the LeBron James shoe endorsement lottery, Reebok has enlisted the services of three-year old "king of the court" Mark Walker. "The youngest member of the Reebok family," Mark will make his debut appearance on BET's famed hip-hop show 106 and Park on May 27th.
by John Gaffney on May 22, 12:00 AM
My Man Rupert: I don't have a lot of personal affinity for the way Rupert Murdoch runs some of his media properties. I've been on the record about my distaste for Fox News and its mix of patriotism and journalism.
by John Gaffney on May 21, 12:00 AM
Men Are From Mars: You know the rest. But why are men's magazine titles up 3.
by John Gaffney on May 20, 12:00 AM
I Care About Jayson Blair: Since I see just about every message board and portal site filling up with reactions upon reactions to the disgraced Times' reporter, I'll check in again. I do care because stealing copy or making up copy is left to fiction writers.
by John Gaffney on May 19, 12:00 AM
Report Cards: As the buyers and sellers roll up their collective sleeves and get on down to actually doing business now, and before we start hearing about the big blockbuster deals, let's not forget the past upfront presentations. The way I see it and hear it, you don't need to look among the networks for the big winner over the past two weeks of hype and glory.
by John Gaffney on May 16, 12:00 AM
Other People's Riffs For The Week: Why You Love/Hate Ted Turner: The ever quotable Ted told a Fortune magazine writer, "Right now I'm kind of like Rhett Butler walking out the door on his way to Charleston to look for a more noble life." .......