• by June 6, 2005

WHY IS THERE EVIL? -- It's a question we ask ourselves repeatedly, but until Bob Garfield posed it to us today in San Francisco we hadn't really understood why. It's one of those things that defy explanation, Garfield explained to us, and a roomful of online marketing experts, during a presentation of his Chaos Scenario at MediaPost's OMMA West conference. Garfield, of course, is the well known advertising critic at Advertising Age and the presentation was an adaptation of a groundbreaking article he published two months ago in the trade magazine that has caused quite a stir ever since. The article, however, was not nearly as chaotic as Garfield's presentation, which ran the course from his questionably successful encounter with Lasik's surgery to his personal frustrations with Microsoft's PowerPoint software.

But as it turns out, it's neither the existence of evil, nor the lack of user-friendliness of PowerPoint that is the most unexplainable phenomenon on Garfield's personal list, which also includes:

*What preceded the universe?
*How was Bush reelected?
*Carrot Top's career

No the biggest brain-buster among Garfield's litany of the unanswerable is: "The upfronts." Not that they are evil, or that they exist so much as how they can continue to exist when so much of the business around them is changing so fundamentally.

We are equally as stymied about the upfronts and can offer no greater insight, but at least one member of a panel following Garfield's presentation was able to explain one of his Garfield's unexplainables: How George W. Bush was reelected.

"Because the Bush campaign married software to Tupperware," explained Michael Cornfield, a senior consultant for the Pew Internet & American Life Project. What he meant, he said was that Bush's reelection team utilized the same kind of grassroots marketing that Tupperware's or Amway's sales forces use to move their product - a lot of direct, personal and zealous selling. "It broke down the wall between the ads and the sales force," marveled Cornfield, who nonetheless failed to explain the reasons for either evil or the continuing existence of the upfronts.

EVERYBODY'S WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND -- Given consumer lifestyle trends it was probably inevitable that the media industry would begin targeting people when they really want to get away from it all: The weekend. Sure, there's always been media aimed specifically at the weekend crowd - Sunday newspaper supplements, "Saturday Night Live," The Saturday Evening Post -- but Friday-through-Sunday has suddenly become the sweet spot of the media week. Or maybe, it's just a weak spot for the media elite? It began last year when Life magazine was resurrected, not in its former weekly or monthly newsstand and subscription-based incarnation, but as a national newspaper supplement. But instead of being distributed on Sundays like rivals Parade and USA Weekend, the Time Inc. title was born again as a Friday supplement aimed at weekenders. The magazine still features the great photography and compelling stories about the American scene, but, as its mission statement suggests, it is aimed at, "helping millions transition from work to life every Friday. Life inspires us to make the most of the weekend - the two days when we embrace life by reconnecting with family and friends."

That approach seems to be working because Life has inspired newspapers to carry it, readers to read it, and now at least one major competitor to copy its weekend strategy. In fact, Hearst Magazines today unveiled plans for Weekend, a new magazine for weekenders, which ironically will be published every couple of months. Frequency aside, Hearst said the new title is intended to serve as "a one-stop resource on what to do during the 48-hours each week we can truly call our own." Alas, Hearst cannot call that market its own. And just in case you missed Life's weekend connection, the magazine has been running a series of ads on industry websites, including MediaPost, which give you the opportunity to "dunk" Life Publisher Peter Bauer. Not that we'd want you to knock Bauer into the water - even a rich media animated version of him - but if you manage to do so, you might just win a weekend in South Beach.