As advertisers often ask me "what's coming next," you'd think I'd have a pretty good answer for this column. The truth is, with so much happening and so much opportunity squandered today in the name of defending what once was, the question leaves me at a loss. I mean, look at the proportion of audiences going online and skipping television ads, and compare this figure to the dollars spent online as a percent of total traditional ad dollars.There is movement, but the pace of adoption could knock the wind out of even the most ambitious futurist. And yet, …

Riddle question: how is a TiVo like a microwave oven? Answer: Both were predicted to nuke an industry, but doomsday never happened, and never will. One of my first account assignments back in the Advertising B.cC. days (Before Cable, Before Consolidation, Before Context Planning) was on a microwave-oven account. Microwaves were all the latest rage, and the kitchen-appliance industry was aghast that the microwave would spell the death of ovens, toasters, and cooktops (back then, prosaically known as "stoves") as consumers worldwide were expected to soon prepare all foods requiring heat -- literally everything -- in their microwaves.

The question "is there life after death in advertising?" comes from the same intellectual depths as those plumbed by Cher when she posed the far more fundamental query, "Do you believe in life after love?" This fatuous comparison merely allows us to say, "of course," and then get over it. Love, relationships, and marketing communications occupy a spectrum from the indifferent to the spectacular; they always have and always will. It's still advertising, but not as we know it. So the real questions are about form rather than existence, about the means of transmission, the space/time continuum, and the …

Okay, so the end of advertising is upon us (once again). Well, this time we've got 10 predictions for the end. The first one is easy. If advertising ends, the last adman standing will be Donny Deutsch. You've seen his show, "The Big Idea," on CNBC. It's successful. We watch it.Donny represents the final straw of advertising. He is an adman who has transformed himself into an entertainer. He's not a Charlie Rose, Dick Cavett, or even a Barbara Walters. Donny's ammo doesn't puncture the heart like Charlie and Babs on a roll. Instead, he goes for bear with …

They say the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and yet expect a different result. Based on that statement, I'd have to call the advertising industry insane. Why? Because here we go again, hell-bent to predict what's next for our business even though our track record for prognosticating the developments of advertising is lousy, to put it kindly. (Am I the only one who remembers the fervent forecasts of a fully online media marketplace, with everything from Cosmo spreads to Super Bowl spots auctioned off in real time, made as recently as the …

In preparation for this forecast issue of media, the editors asked me to ponder the question "If advertising is dead, what comes next?" Which made me think of atoms. Atoms, of course, are the ubiquitous little devils that constitute everything we are and everything we see. We are made entirely of atoms, as are the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the cars we drive, and the houses we sleep in. They're everywhere. But what's interesting about atoms is that they last a lot longer than the things they form. When I shuffle off …

Upon viewing IO2 Technology's Heliodisplays, which project images onto thin air, one's first impulse is to liken them to futuristic tchotchkes seen in sci-fi flicks like "Minority Report." But IO2 CEO Chad Dyner has a considerably more modest goal for his product: to prove to those in the advertising and trade-show-display arenas that it works. The Heliodisplay technology allows users to display any type of video in full color and with a high resolution. IO2 is currently offering 22- and 42-inch displays that cost between $18,000 and $28,000. Dyner, a former MIT student, admits that the technology …

Think it's only frantic job hunters who, to use an old cliché, throw everything out there in the hopes that something will stick? If it seems like marketers are using this tactic a lot more, maybe it's because they actually are. The increasing number of firms offering less-costly out-of-home media options might be part of the reason. New York-based Ambient Planet's promotional push for TLC's makeover show "What Not to Wear" is an example. In advance of an eight-city mall tour promoting the show, the agency distributed door hangers in such locales as Boston and New York.

You don't need to be a star to be a cell phone celebrity, says 5280 Mobile, the wireless brand extension agency that seems to be specializing in taking Hollywood's C-list mobile. The company will soon be making ringtones, wallpapers, and other "third-screen" entertainment out of the Alpha Models stable of Playboy Playmates and Creative Light Entertainment's collection of former reality tv personalities ("Survivor," "The Apprentice," et. al.). But bikini wallpapers and video clips are the easy part, says president Blake Fayling, who thinks mobile can be a unique entry point, not just an extension for, celebrities. "We're not looking …

Call it Coca-Cola cool. In European nightclubs this summer, Coke rolled out bright aluminum cans shaped like its iconic bottles and bearing colorful designs. Coke plans to bring the cans to the U.S. as part of a drive to convince influential 20-somethings that Coke is cool. Initially, only five designs will be released, and they will be changed every few months. A three- to five-minute online film will accompany each launch. Coke hopes the containers, available only at select trendsetting venues, will become collectors' items. Coke's Classic brand has gone clubbing before. In 2002, …