This past week, "20/20" ran a segment on how people are fighting back against poor customer service, heavily featuring the Gawker Media consumer advocate blog Consumerist. The piece included some of the customer service horror stories we've all come to know and loathe, such as the sleeping Comcast technician and the Herculean task of canceling an AOL account.

Let's face it, celebrities are not only influential, they have the cachet to become a brand. A celebrity endorsement could also make or break your brand.

A reality check. Are big advertisers ready to cede control to consumers? Instinctively, they know they have no choice. However, I'm not sure how prepared they are to start tackling key obstacles.

In my 15 years in this business, I've had the good fortune to hire hundreds of great people. One thing I've learned over the years is that while compensation and benefits are very important, they do not rule the day when it comes to attracting and retaining great talent. In my experience, the best people take jobs or leave jobs for more substantive and core reasons than just money....

This television season has seen quite a bit more references to the Internet than ever before, as the networks are finally starting to understand the concept of supporting their core programming with interactive supplements. But I'm still surprised at the lag in thinking when these models are applied....

A lot's been written in the industry lately about indicators--what signs indicate when you should fire your agency, or when you should think about letting clients go. One thing I haven't seen discussed, however, is the notion of when you should cut your losses and decline an RFP for agency services. If you work at an agency, this is always a very difficult decision to make, but there are usually clear indicators that the potential client making inquiries is not the type of client you want on your roster. Here are some of them.

As Columbus Day weekend comes to a close, I can't help but think about consumer confidence. It seemed like no matter where I looked, from supermarkets to strip malls to traffic going up north for leaf-peeping, people were out and about. It looked like they were spending money, too.

If we presume marketing communications' ultimate aspiration is to drive and sustain sales--whether directly or indirectly through brand loyalty, awareness, involvement or direct response--then we need to thrust this engagement discussion further. It needs to go way beyond the margins of the traditional paid-for and interruptive attention models that we all seem to agree are broken or eroding.

Much like the FTC did ten years ago, it is bringing together a number of technologist, industry folks (disclosure: I am one of them), scholars, and analysts to present testimony on where we think consumer technology is going over the next ten years and if there will be issues that require some kind of consumer protection. Basically, the FTC wants to better understand how technological and business developments will shape the consumers' core online experiences.

Every week it seems that people ask the question of whether and when it will be "safe" or "appropriate" for advertisers to be aligned with content in the user-generated space (primarily user-generated video)--and the answer is surprisingly easy. It indeed will be safe, and it will be appropriate, and it will come very quickly--probably in the next 3-6 months.