Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Posted 5:06 PM by Gene

If it's Sunday it must be Big Double-A-Scribble Time:

1. The trade group for the reverse Robin Hoods has its doubts about selling in this depr -- ECONOMY:

The Association of National Advertisers, too, seems to view an effort to get people spending as foolhardy. "It's not going to be an advertising campaign that's going to get people to spend or to invest or whatever," said ANA CEO Bob Liodice. "It's going to be the effect of government policies that's going to convince people to spend money or not."

If you're giving up on annoying us now why do you annoy us when the economy's good? Doesn't this line deep-six the notion of advertising as panacea?

For now, it's probably up to individual marketers to show that they can deliver great value for the consumer -- and aren't all about lining the pockets of their senior executives.

We've given up on that notion for some time -- and it didn't take a depr -- ECONOMY to do it.

2. Broadcast TV or Cable, It's All the Same to Consumers

It's all the same to me -- the same bad through two sources which don't seem like two sources, and they're extruded by the same media megalith. I trust this won't keep the reverse Robin Hoods from spending more for more junk; if anything the end of this distinction might give them an excuse to really run roughshod over our psyches.

3. But there is hope -- with newspapers losing their vigor, and perhaps all our TV coming through the computer, and so many shows having the audience the size of public-access cable, media will find themselves so vitiated as to lose a lot of influence. The AIG psychosis says don't bet on it. We'll merely have a new kind of bad.