I was realizing this past week, after returning from vacation, that some of my more recent articles may not have been as sharp as I would have liked and I decided I need to get back to writing about ideas that are applicable in our every-day working lives.

Single white female ad executive seeking to uncover behavioral changes in a dominant environment. So you are on your pc reading through email and you opened this message. (And you probably thought I was going elsewhere with this piece.) What else are you doing? Listening to the radio? Maybe you are IMing someone or multiple people for that matter. Now how 'bout your target audience? What are they doing? Do you know?

Yesterday a client asked a logical question that had no easy answer. What is the standard in the Internet industry relative to page exclusivity for an advertiser? This falls under the category of competitive protection. Most media categories have this in place, but there is no standard that exists for the Internet (IAB and OPA, time to weigh in on this?). Should there be? Most definitely. But like many Internet standards issues, this is not going to be easy to define.

Who remembers the Jerky Boys? They were two guys who made a career out of making prank phone calls and recording them. In one of my favorite Jerky Boys routines, they ring up a car dealership in response to a classified ad for an open sales position. The funniest part of the prank call is when the Jerky Boys describe their car sales technique, which involved ramming a consumer's face into the hood of a car and commanding him to buy the car. I laughed hysterically at this. The idea of someone using force to compel someone to buy something …

Last week saw the latest trend in online display advertising make its way to into press releases and online news sources. Forbes.com, NYTimes.com, and CBS Marketwatch were among the notable publishers announcing that they would now start running as a matter of course what is being called a half-page unit. Now if someone could just tell us what the impact is going to be...

Last week I hypothesized what the future of advertising might be like and a number of people chimed in with responses that dealt with the choices we make regarding the utilization of media on a day-to-day basis, but what choice do we really have as consumers?

Masha hit upon this the other day and I've been bummed out ever since. Obviously I eat, sleep and breathe in a digital world. Let me explain. If you haven't heard or paid attention to the phrase "Net evaders" you may now.

Yesterday, my colleague Seana Mulcahy, wrote a bit about the latest Pew Internet report, which provides some interesting new data on Internet access and the digital divide. From this report came a statistic that was startling to me. Not only do 42% of Americans claim that they do not use the Internet, but 17% of those non-users were connected and using the Internet at one time.

A client calls and asks you to put together an integrated media plan for a new product they are launching. As a good agency that does their due diligence, you do the appropriate vetting of research and media options. You define the target, find the appropriate vehicles that have affinity with both the target and the product, and you nail down the costs.

Let's be careful with those network pay-for-performance deals, folks. Without naming names, apparently there are a few ad networks that think it acceptable to re-book client ads with unapproved websites that are not formally affiliated with their network. This may get the network credit for a few incremental clicks or leads, but it also can result in a very ticked-off client if they happen to see their ads running with websites they're not comfortable supporting.