The long tail is getting longer.

eMarketer, a market-research firm specializing in “e”, says that US Internet advertising spending is expected to reach $16.4 billion in 2006, a 30.8% gain over last year’s $12.5 billion figure. The bad news is overall ad spending is expected to remain relatively flat.
“At the rate Internet ad spending is growing, [...]

Last week on the podcast I read an item about negotiations between the writer’s guild and Those Who Will Not Write; producers’ attempts to start talks early were thwarted by the cagey writers, who insist on waiting until the month before the contracts run out. Producers tapped for quotes at the time called the decision [...]

It’s not your imagination. Xmas-related advertising is starting ever-earlier. Advertising Age reports, glumly, that Lowes Hardware stores introduced it’s holiday ad campaign about a week before Halloween. Boycott Lowes!
“People are starting to shop earlier and they are tapping into that,” said Bill Bruce, chief creative officer at BBDO, New York, Lowe’s agency, which has a [...]

Ever since the tenfold increase for indecency fines, the FCC has been the brunt of harsh criticism from media people. They say that there is no definition of indecency, and that enforcement is arbitrary. The FCC reversed itself on a couple of rulings yesterday, in an apparent attempt to keep debate alive.

One such ruling involved [...]

Google’s secret weapon, its raison d’etre in the business world, is its ability to see where you surf, figure out what you like, and deliver targeted ads to you. Why then are they moving into radio advertising?

Google spokesman Michael Mayzel said this week that the company will begin a public test of Google Audio Ads [...]

This audio commentary by Jack Handey is an excellent guide to ensuring that your skeleton, when it is dug up by adventurer/archaeologists five hundred years from now, is scary. Who wants to leave behind a hohum skeleton? And it’s never to early to start planning.
Jack Handey is the mastermind behind SNL’s DEEP THOUGHTS. He was on [...]

Sumner Redstone, the man who runs Paramount and CBS and Viacom, the man who publicly let Tom Cruise go. They say that cat Redstone is a bad… (Shut yo mouth!) … I’m just talkin’ ’bout Redstone! (We can dig it!)
Anyway, he gave a speech last night in which he trash-talks the FCC. Speaking at the [...]

XM Satellite Radio shares are dropping like space junk at news that the SEC will look into allegations of wrongdoing in the company. According to Variety ”federal regulators are probing how it estimates subscriber counts and the cost of signing up new customers.” This is a big issue because while the satellite radio medium is booming, [...]

I just saw these items online:
Dateline Associated Press — Though he’s one of the most successful pop stars in history, Elton John says he’s given up on the idea of making hit records now that he’s 59.
“Our day in the sun has gone, as far as radio play goes,” John told an audience Wednesday night. [...]

It’s common knowlege that advertising dollars are on the verge of leaving network television. Appropriately, the first major indicator of this is a campaign for a vehicle.
Advertising Age reports that dollar spent to advertise the Pontiac G5, a sporty little car, has been spent on the internet.
It’s a “radical experiment,” said Mark-Hans Richer, Pontiac’s marketing director, [...]