• by John Gaffney , November 18, 2002

The U2 Edition

Surrender: I cannot figure this business out for the life of me. And I’m starting to think that any sentient being who says he or she has it figured out – doesn’t. Case in point: the new CMR/TNS research study. It says the business is up 2.2 percent. Not challenging the accuracy of that. Not challenging any methodology. But there’s one thing within the report that boggles me. I was convinced when I started this gig in May, that newspapers were in for a shellacking by the end of the year. Made a lot of sense to me that consumers would keep turning to the internet for information, and print news would start a slow fade as an ad vehicle. That may have started on a national scale. National newspapers are down three percent. Newspapers are up eight percent on a local basis. I believe this has happened through some great local marketing, sales persistence and the automotive business figuring out that cars are sold at local dealers. All politics is local, said Tip O’Neill. Guess newspapers are too. But I could be wrong. Hell, I’m probably wrong.

Desire: I don’t remember the first day of an ad campaign that hit any harder than what H-P debuted yesterday. In a shy marketplace for most brands, and a painfully shy market for tech products, it spoke volumes. I came away from the several places I saw this campaign feeling like the company was unified, committed to the future and a true leader in its category. But then again, see item one.

Bullet The Blue Sky: I say we take this Countdown: Iraq thing on MSNBC to the next level. Get a clock. A digital clock. Each day you could set it to the actual day of invasion as pontificated by pontificators, and countdown. Put it in the right hand corner of the screen. Sell it at a $30 CPM.