For years, I've criticized the companies that sit on the fence between agency services and media sales, playing to whatever angle happens to be convenient in a given moment. And my stance hasn't changed: one cannot ethically be both a buyer and a seller.

Will you be watching the Super Bowl ads this year? What are you looking forward to seeing? Is the pressure for unique, big-brand-building creative too much? Who will have the "best" ad? Post your predictions to the Spin Board and I'll check back with you next week.

So much has been made in the past few years of how Google built its brand. People always seem to start their dissertations with the notion that Google built a better mouse trap. Using this as a starting point in deconstructing the brand is akin to teaching Intelligent Design in schools. It's less about science than it is about faith.

The most interesting thing about CES 2006 (the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas) was my cab ride home from Kennedy Airport. I struck up a conversation with my cab driver that helped put all the new technology in perspective.

While I was reading articles and clicking through sites featuring some of the hottest items at CES, I became attentive, once again, to how technology is forcing integration to happen faster than ever before.

What if you could subscribe to your favorite audio and video content for a fee and have it come to you automatically, wherever you are? Furthermore, what if it came to whatever device you happened to have with you, whether that be your home stereo, television or video iPod?

If you're a marketer or advertiser, online or offline, there's a demographic you've absolutely got to talk to: Boomers (the generation born between 1946 and 1964).

Columns on predictions are, well, predictable. But with so many of my colleagues teasing up their predictions from last year and throwing them on the altar for sacrifice, I can hardly resist.

It's the dawn of a new year--filled with excitement, possibilities and promise. By now all of the new HDTV sets are hooked up, new iPods are formatted, iTunes accounts are set up, and BitTorrent 4.2.2 is properly installed. Let the media frenzy begin.

Welcome to 2006, the year when everyone finally "gets it"! The reason I know this is because of Christmas dinner with my family just two short weeks ago.