Don’t worry. I won’t talk about the game. I probably shouldn’t talk about the commercials either, because, sadly, there isn’t much to talk about, but I wanted to go on record with my picks before I turn to serious issues like online war coverage and newspaper site revenues.

It’s not often I get to write about advertising success stories, and the timing of these is perfect for a feel-good weekend sendoff.

If there’s anything about the Internet we know for sure it’s that the web will be a popular destination during Sunday’s big game, regardless of the score.

It looks like it’s all about researching football and beer online these days, which shouldn’t surprise anyone with less than a week left before the Super Bowl.

This morning, 19 leading email service providers announced the formation of a coalition to fight spam. According to the announcement, the group will work to “find solutions to the spam problem and protect the appropriate use of permission-based email as a marketing and business communication tool.” What's the plan?

First off, what in the world was Lara Flynn Boyle thinking last night? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the only positive effect of her outrageous outfit is that the next press release most likely to cross my path will be from E! Online, thanking the actress for boosting its site traffic with that terrible tutu thing. I suppose that’s good news for chat room sponsors everywhere.

Seems like everyone is talking about broadband this week. First thing Monday, Yahoo! announced the launch of streaming video technology for its online dating service, Yahoo! Personals. Mid-week, Nielsen/NetRatings reported that broadband access at home continues to post double-digit growth with a 59% year-over-year increase. Today, Yahoo! Inc. and ACNielsen released the results of their latest Internet Confidence Index, which also sheds some light on the issue.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about pharmaceutical advertising and how much influence drug marketers really have on both doctors and patients. A piece of research out today, useful as it may be in your next pitch, may add some fuel to the fire.

Here’s something slightly unexpected. According to the latest monthly ratings from Nielsen//NetRatings, older age Internet users were the fastest growing segment using broadband.

A step behind the rest of the forecasters, CMR today weighed in with its projections for ad spending for 2003. According to CMR/TNS Media Intelligence, ad spending is expected to rise 3.3% in 2003, up to $117.5 billion.