• by John Gaffney , March 25, 2003

War. What Is It Good For?: Bad headlines and armed forces advertising, I guess. I think the civilian ad community could take their marching orders (ouch) from the military and run some ads during broadcast coverage of the conflict, instead of staying away from it. I watched a fair amount of war coverage over the past few days. It's an incredible display of pyrotechnics followed by a blur of sand. I remember being much more affected watching Walter Cronkite when I was a kid, and seeing GI's get dragged though the jungle by their buddies. This, so far, doesn't look like a graphic depiction of warfare and its attendant suffering. But commercials during this coverage are still scarce. The Armed Forces have found an outlet free of clutter. They have ticked up their recruitment ads. If I was a telecommunications brand, for example, or even an SUV brand, I'd reconsider my no-war plans.

Check This Out, Squidward: Last Friday March 21, Nickelodeon aired SpongeBob SquarePants' Lost Episode special at 9:30p, delivering 4.7 million viewers, making it the highest rated program for the K2-11 demo on broadcast or cable this year, second only to the Super Bowl. I cite these stats only because SpongeBob is a great example not only of marketing to kids, but of creating events around a TV show. Reality TV has done that well. Usually season-enders for dramas do that well. You can't underestimate the importance of marketing, even when you're marketing an entertainment property that runs every day.

Last Call: I was very impressed with the new weekly version of The Deal. Excellent cover piece on Michael Powell. It's very heard to put together a unique business package in today's hyper-competitive market, and The Deal pulled it off.