• by John Gaffney , August 5, 2002

Matter Of Trust: The Pew Research Center has quantified what we already knew: Consumers are “annoyed” with the media. Don’t trust it. Less than a majority trust Rather, Brokaw or Jennings. Less than half even think the news media is professional. Here’s the big problem, though. I’ll bet the same survey would show the same about corporate America. So when you run your client’s ad on a news show, the average viewer doesn’t trust their news, and probably doesn’t trust the company and brand being advertised in the middle. So I guess we could call the evening hours on cable and network “the distrust hour.” I think trust in news is a result of the inability of news operations to adjust to the fact that “Breaking News” has ebbed. Highway car chases are not breaking news. A news conference that gives no information about a child’s kidnapping is not breaking news. I resent the red banner and false urgency that comes with “breaking news” when it pales in comparison to recent events that made “breaking news” seem too weak a moniker. The consumer wants a level hand and sound judgment from news organizations. Lately it gets hyped up stories and an endless run of commentators who talk loud and say nothing. So in a climate of corporate distrust, media planners and buyers need to answer the question: “Who do you trust?”

Behind The Numbers: The Veronis Suhler Report, released yesterday, is a very educated guess at consumer media consumption and business ad expenditures. Let’s face it, it is an educated guess at something no one can ever make a good guess about. But it made a good point about something this business doesn’t focus on enough, and that is tech-savvy kids. Leo Kivijarv, director of research and publications at Veronis Suhler Stevenson, told The New York Times that today's most influential consumers are "a younger audience, more technologically savvy, who spend on video games, DVD's, Internet access." Today’s kids are too savvy for traditional forms of advertising. But they just might make the internet a better platform for ads than anyone can predict right now.

Hit Movies Create Geniuses: “Signs” brought in $60 million at the box office last weekend and suddenly Disney is “buoyed” by its success. I’ve always maintained that there’s nothing wrong with Disney that a few hit movies couldn’t fix. And someday, someone at Disney will understand that the way to fix ABC Network is to develop more movie franchises for TV.