Mac vs. PC vs. Richardson vs. Obama

The New York Times has given over some of the sacred space on its home page to this latest online version of the Mac vs. PC ads, but this campaign can get away with stealing attention away from the headline that Bill Richardson has endorsed Obama. It's gimmicky, sure, but the idea of the "emergency banner refresh" cracks me up. Go to nytimes.com, before it goes away.

IAB: Nothing new in 'New York Times' story

Randy Rothenberg did a quick turnaround post this morning on his Interactive Advertising Bureau "clog" saying that there is nothing all that new under the sun when it comes to audience measurement discrepancies—and that the story in today's New York Times doesn't point out that the IAB has been working with the major services to resolve measurement issues. Of course, as a former New York Times' ad columnist, Rothenberg makes sure to point out how difficult summing up big, thorny issues such as Web metrics can be, saying, "if you think it’s so easy to summarize a history of the world in 750 words, try it someday."

Art directors at Publicis make $85K a year

Maybe some of you read The New York Times real estate section this weekend looking for a property to buy, but I was attracted to the cover story on those plucky New Yorkers, who, despite the immense handicap of not working on Wall Street, still managed to buy a place of their own, even if it's in some part of NYC that no aspiring power executive would have considered calling home back in the day. Which brings me to Amy Wegenaar, whose biggest problems in the apartment hunt were that she could only pay $250,000 and that she was worried about finding a place "large enough to fit her lunchbox collection, her Spiderman collection and her collection of Jack Skellington dolls in coffins from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas.'" Needless to say, she's an ad agency art director, who told the paper that her job at Publicis pays her roughly $85,000 per year. I always wonder about people who are so anxious to share their salary info with the entire NYT readership. What do you think the chit-chat was around the Publicis water cooler today? Anyway, Ms. Wegenaar can be found with her collections in a one-bedroom in Ditmas Park.