Other People’s Riffs: The Geopolitical Edition What’s The Big Deal? It Worked For Led Zeppelin: The Indian division of Cadbury-Schweppes, a venerable confectionery company, has incensed large swathes of Hindu society by running a newspaper advertisement comparing its Temptations chocolate to the war-torn region of Kashmir. The ad carries the tagline: “I'm good.

To Do List For Tuesday “OK Summer’s Over, Back-To-Work” List: 1) Discuss whether new recast Rolling Stone is a brilliant turn of the corner or a wimpy copy of Maxim/Blender. 2) Discuss research project to find out whether young adults are as shallow as Rolling Stone, MTV and Maxim thinks they are.

Looking Inside: Never thought I’d say (write) this. But I have recently become ambivalent about 9/11 tribute programming.

Salon In Print: Unless they’re going to put models in bikinis on the cover and stock it with six-pack ab tips from the world’s greatest writers, I have a tough time seeing Salon.com in print.

Do You BeLiVo: You should. TiVo is taking shape as a company and that company is revenue smart and advertising positive.

OPRs (Other People's Riffs) That’s Right Folks. A Pop Culture Icon: In the upcoming Comedy Central BattleBots Season 5..0, with the introduction of “pop culture icon” Gary Coleman, the arena will be changed forever. Beginning last week, Coleman worked for Nightmare, the sport's most destructive "bot." In-between battles, Coleman worked aong side the pit crew, and drooled shamelessly over BattleBots' host, Carmen Electra.

Getting Real With Newspapers: There’s a lot of conflicting information out there about newspapers these days. Nielsen says newspapers are up 8 percent for the year. The NAA says the uptick is closer to flat. A New York Times article on Tuesday says “the first wave of July results from the newspaper chains shows that national and help-wanted advertising is still sluggish, ensuring that the industry's 18-month decline is not over.”

Ads On Demand: I interviewed Jeff Hicks, who is a partner at Miami’s Crispin, Porter and Bogusky agency earlier this year. He told me something I had not heard up to that point. I don’t remember the exact quote but it was something to the effect that full-page ads and 30 second spots are restrictions placed on him by content owners. They are not necessarily the sacred spaces content owners think they are. Hicks went on to prove his point with the outrageous print campaign for the Mini.

Power To The People: Consumers will always give you the straight deal in the ad business. You just need to find a reliable way to hear from them. Case in point: the recent numbers from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index. The index is unique. It is run by the University of Michigan. It has no axe to grind. No stock to sell. No reports to sell either.

Somethin’s Wrong With My Radio: Our Media Daily News and everybody else keeps reporting on the latest monthly revenue figures from the Radio Advertising Bureau. And that’s cool, because it’s a good story to cover in this slow summer for news, and those numbers show a convincing turnaround for national advertising on radio, after it spent much of last year in the tank. But I still think radio needs a big time overhaul.