Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 11.03.08

Wherein I scan the Monday morning headlines so you don't have to.

From Advertising Age:

--Even in an election and Olympics year, media spending is down in the first three quarters.
--Oprah kindles interest in the Kindle.
--Kohl's upping its holiday spending to focus on value.
--What it will be like when Conan O'Brien helms "The Tonight Show."
--The future of print.
--Speaking of which, according to a few sources, Macy's has cut all of its print budget for the first half of 2009.
--Your viewers skipping ads on TiVo? Not to worry ... make sure they can't skip on broadband.
--Wal-Mart buying up national radio, some cable nets.
--AOL's Randy Falco says it's all digital's fault.
--Eric Hadley leaves Heavy, amid tough times for laddie sites.
--The Brits embrace "one downmanship." If you don't know what that is, you'd be surprised to know you're probably doing it, too.
--You might want to know about digital divas.
--What does media M&A activity look like in a downturn? It doesn't look entirely comatose.
--3 Minute Ad Age: It isn't just the lack of money; media companies just aren't green.
--Admitted Phillies fan Bob Garfield reviews ads he saw during the playoffs.

From Adweek:

--Yeah, we kinda knew this already, but agency holding companies are cutting back. Don't be surprised if you get cut out of that trip to L.A.
--Keeping it all in the family, DDB gets AT&T's b-to-b business.
--Arnold lets go eight percent of staff at its Boston headquarters.
--Hold that thought: OMD, not Zenith, gets Levi's media business.
--Video blogger/sports rapper wears Timberland's on his hands, raps for Timberlands. Too much going on here for me to parse, but here's the dude's MySpace page.
--NYSE Euronext proves hot for Havas.
--Razorfish buys Spain digital shop called wysiwig. Who knew that wysiwig meant the same thing in Spanish?
--"Just asking" asks people who should know how Obama and McCain's marketing might have been better. It's all water under the bridge now.
--DraftFCB goes to Sydney; picks Michael Simons to be its New York CCO.
--How Saatchi, Pampers moved away from Sally Struthers, teaming on an effort to fund one tetanus shot in developing countries for every pack of Pampers sold. Cool. Here's an ad from the campaign:





--The political ad career of former Fallon creative Bill Hillsman.
--Alan Wolk diagnoses the agency community with Nascar blindness, dismissing Nascar, "some bizarre redneck affectation akin to eating squirrel meat." Cool.
--Paul Cappelli gets into trouble in Italy, but maybe wins that tourism account anyway.
--Adweek video: The International Advertising Association's Michael Lee on creating a, well, global global warming campaign.





From Brandweek:

--Can you use the skills of designers to tackle business problems? Those who say yes call it "design thinking."
--Q&A with Laurine Garrity, senior vp/CMO of TD Ameritrade, on the opportunities the company sees in the current market.
--Eco-friendly cleaning products company Seventh Generation gets serious.
--Purina drooling all over Christmas flick, "Marley & Me."
--White Gold makes an appearance at beauty salons.

From Mediapost:

--Denis Leary for the Ford F-150. Hey, it gets 21 miles per gallon!
--Oh no! Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa for the new TD Bank.
--Non-smoking groups tell Philip Morris they own the color pink.
--Psssst. Want to know how to make it through the recession? Go into digital out-of-home media.
--Nielsen says that Internet users are also big TV watchers. They're also sloths.
--New York AG Andrew Cuomo starts an investigation of Arbitron, and, yes, it ties back to the Portable People Meter.
--JP Morgan downgrades its online advertising estimate for the second time recently; now it predicts it will only grow by 13 percent in 2009. That other media could be so lucky.
--The Rubicon Project says online advertising will be up too.
--AOL aggregates morning show content into "The Morning Rush."
--MySpace, MTV in ad insertion deal when people upload MTV content to YouTube.

From Mediaweek:

--Clear Channel's outdoor digital billboards will stream news on election night.
--Conde Nast's direct response group goes bye-bye as company cuts.
--Fox's "King of the Hill" will tumble after more than 250 episodes.
--Marc Berman's Programming Insider: "30 Rock" benefits ... somewhat ... from the Tina Fey bounce.
--John McCain pulls in the "SNL" ratings.
--A roundup of how each medium will fare in the downturn.
--Why are all those respected brands showing up on racy gossip sites anyway?
--How broadcast TV buyers would change the broadcast lineup.
--The ups and downs of the CW.
--Meredith's "Better" gets picked up by more stations.
--Jim Cooper on being a political news junkie during a heated election.

From The New York Post:

--Costco is the new Nordstrom's.
--Music-themed video games may hit sour note.
--Editor-in-chief Steve Adler says no more cuts at BusinessWeek this year, after the magazine shuts down its TV show, that is.

From The New York Times:

--The political campaigns and Web 2.0.
--Trying to drive local ads to local newspaper Web sites.

That's it, folks. One day until the election. Thank God.

More to come ...