It might turn out that the most unrealistic and Pollyannish aspect of the fake July 4, 2009, "Iraq War Ends" edition of The New York Times distributed by pranksters last November was that the phony front page contained no display ads. The New York Times had never sullied its front page with display ads, at least not until the fearful economic climate and plummeting ad revenue got the best of them.

Turning the old axiom on its head, digital signage is proving that what goes up must go higher. Walgreens' new signage system at One Times Square is the biggest video display ever built. "We took inspiration from the traditional billboard style, along with a healthy dose of influence from Blade Runner and Minority Report," says Greg Tribbe, managing director for the display's designer, the Gilmore Group.

Make no mistake: It's clear that a recession, perhaps even a depression, is here. Consumer confidence has plummeted along with the markets. Advertising expenditures are being pulled back. What does this mean for research?

Do you think you are successful? Ambitious? In this era, when our economic ecosystem stares in the face of fabulous failure, our own personal successes and ambitions can become much more powerfully luminous to each of us. My own lens on ambition was profoundly refocused about 15 years ago when I visited India and took the opportunity to meet a spiritual philosopher - a budding Deepak Chopra, if you will.

Are you kidding me? Those words reverberated in my head upon reading a recent column in this magazine. The piece, "Don't Give Up Just Yet" (October 2008), reported on a major study conducted by Yankelovich and Sequent Partners that revealed what was posited as a silver lining amidst the storm clouds facing traditional media today: Despite their rapid migration to new media, consumers like - and are more responsive to - advertising in traditional channels. The author, J. Walker Smith, suggested this finding might be a reason not to lose faith in old-school media quite yet.

When i first heard the premise of mad men it made me, well - mad. Set in 1960s New York, the sexy, stylized and provocative amc drama follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising, an ego-driven world where key players make an art of the sell.

In honor of the month that brings us valentine's day, I'm dedicating this column to creating a meaningful connection - between your left brain and your right brain. Though not exactly a tale of romance, you may find your customers showing you some love as a result.

Remember the days when technology belonged to adults? Parents would shop for it, buy it, install it, and caution the kids not to break it. Today, children are the technology experts. They are teaching their parents about new technologies and how to use them. They are the digital natives, and they are leaving the rest of us behind. In some ways, technology is the new generation gap.

Long before constructing 108-inch flat-screen, liquid-crystal display televisions became de rigueur among electronics companies, the picture box was, indeed, just a box.

Hal Holbrook looks as if he is going to cry. The 89-year-old veteran actor may have good reason. He stares directly into the camera, delivering his lines with the gravitas he might employ when playing a u.s. president informing his nation's people they have only hours to ive before a meteor destroys the earth. He pauses melodramatically between each clause, his voicecatching - at times, even breaking - and invites you to linger on his glassy eyes, welling with tears.