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Staying Calm In The Storm Of Paradoxes

Ah, the paradoxes of everyday life. Ad Age reports that McDonald's plan to build coffee bars in the chain's 14,000 locations is being crimped by the squeeze on credit. In the midst of all the stories telling us how hard it is to borrow a buck or two, however, I received an unsolicited email this morning from Bank of America telling me that my credit line has been increased.

It looks like BoA is feeling bullish about golf, as well as my ability to pay it back. It has become the presenting sponsor of the PGA's Chevron World Challenge due to its acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp., according to finchannel.com . And BoA's pending acquisition of Merrill Lynch could give it a third major golf sponsorship -- the Greg Norman-hosted Merrill Lynch Shootout -- according to Sports Business Journal .

Who can make sense of the day's headlines? No wonder that the second-most emailed story at the Wall Street Journal this morning is an Intelligent Investor column with the lead, "Wall Street is dead." But the headline seems to contradict that ... in a good way: "The Depression of 2008? Don't Count On It." Down near the bottom of the story, we're told: "The only true certainly is surprise." Oy, what to do? Bottom line: "Don't bail out."

Peter Madden, blogging in Ad Age , agrees with the "don't bail out" motif, urging small ad agency owners to "remain calm in midst of panic." "As in branding, if you don't take the reins and define who and what your agency is in the midst of pretty damn serious news, you stand the risk of being defined by your employees," he writes. "And you may not like the definition."

Onward, then

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Read the whole story at Ad Age, Finchannel.com, Sports Business Journal, The Wall Street Journal »

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