As is often the case when one takes a position for or against something, there are persons who do not find themselves in agreement. This is for one of three reasons, not all of which are mutually exclusive: 1) Misreading of the expression of the position, 2) a genuine disagreement with the position, and 3) because the position advocated or opposed suggests change, and "…the innovator has for his enemies those who did well under the old conditions.” Alas, a body can only do something about the first two and little, if anything, about the last. So I will make …

How do you use the web? Don’t answer this question like a marketer, answer it from the point of view of an everyday user. How does your mother or father use the web? Understanding consumer behavior is a very important element when determining an effective strategy for any form of advertising, but it seems to be an element that is not always incorporated into online advertising campaigns.

In the debate over ad formats and ad standards, the time has come for ad management.

AOL’s recent ban on third party pop-ups is interesting. It smells like a big sell-out. I am not going to comment on the good or bad of pop-ups. There has been enough of that in these columns. What I am going to talk about today is the double-sided aspect of the AOL announcement.

I was dressed in the only business suit I owned at the time. Waiting patiently outside my godfather’s office, I was thinking about this defining moment in my career. I had just secured my first real job after college, a position as an administrative assistant at Young & Rubicam. Before I started, I wanted to get some advice from someone who had been around the block – someone who knew the New York City business community and could offer up some tips to a kid who couldn’t even figure out the NYC subway system, much less distinguish himself in an …

I know it’s a mistake to be sentimental in business, but it galls me every time I hear of a great ad agency getting suffocated by a parent company. The latest death in our extended family is D’Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, a once-great institution brought to its knees under its French parent company, Publicis.

Last week’s column was about research. I asked whether or not the research that was being produced was solid. I asked what it takes to produce solid research. Lo and behold! Research is a hot topic now, both in the press and in agency conference rooms. It is also a very popular form of PR.

Is advertising truly the perfect marriage between art and science or does advertising rely more heavily on one than the other? Earlier this week I was having this very discussion with a colleague of mine, and I thought it was interesting enough of a question to pose to the masses.

There’s a sign on the front door to my building. It says “No Menus, please.” Pretty simple, no? Except that some restaurants completely ignore our request. Anybody seeing a parallel between this situation and how some businesses approach direct response advertising on the web?

Forget AOL and Earthlink for a moment. Sure, they’re making a big press deal about being anti-pop-up, but the real story is the fact that the Internet audience is having a violent reaction to these deliberate and annoying interruptions.