• by John Gaffney , June 23, 2002

Buy On Bad News; Sell On Good News: That’s how you play stocks right? So today should be a red-letter day for media stocks, because Friday was all about bad news. No, I’m not naïve enough to think the “good news bad news theory” really works anymore. That adage is so 1980s. I am confident now that ad agencies seem to understand more clearly now that the stock market is not the economy. You don’t advertise to Wall Street; you advertise to Main Street. I think the American consumer has separated the stock market from reality, and reality is going to work, bringing home money and buying things with it. The American consumer looks for intimate connections with brands. That connection seems to be in humor and the distraction of celebrity in advertising right now. At least on TV, it’s working. Evidence from the Intermedia Advertising Group certainly bears that out, as its prime time effectiveness rating favors the “Shaq as Shaft” spot for Burger King, and the “Austin Powers Punches Britney Spears” spot. If the stock market continues to sour on media companies, I think it will become clear that media companies are too damn big anyway. Individual business units need more focus. As planner/buyer I say the individual health of Sports Illustrated, CNN or Fortune is your business. But tracking the overall health of the labyrinth that is AOL/TimeWarner is a waste of time. Don’t waste time.

Bring Back Murder….She Wrote: I have it on pretty good authority that the reason so many members of the house and senate think drug companies spend too much on advertising is because they only watch TV on Sunday mornings. Check out Meet The Press sometime. Find an ad that’s not health related. The audience is there, obviously. Who else wants to watch Bob Scheiffer before you can rely on a few slugs of Java to keep you awake. Maybe drug company ads need to move to a more surreptitious venue. 60 Minutes will work. Murder, She Wrote reruns might work. Or bring Phyllis Diller out of retirement and give her a talk show.

Lame Response On Party Pics: I thought all you agency types threw parties in the summer. I put out an RFP on party pics last week on got one rompin’ stompin’ response. I know it can’t be a lack of readership. If I run a typo you guys are on it like cold on ice cream. C’mon. Let us take pictures at the first hour of your big summer bash. The rest is off the record.