This worries me

The idea of stock photography and illustrations has been around for years. I uses stock images all the time for budget or timeline reason. Usually, begrudgingly. But more often than not, the idea really doesn't suffer. And sometimes when you work with a photographer or illustrator often you don't really get exactly what you were looking for anyway.

One thing I find disturbing here is the comoditization of beer ideas or soft drink ideas. No business has the same set of challenges that their advertising needs to address.

Also, could this lead to an era when we see outsourcing of ad creativity to other countries like in software development?

Ben Stien rants on in-flight cell phone calling.

The product everyone wants for themselves but no one wants for anyone else. We hear enough about people lives as they ramble walking down streets and through malls. It’s a good bet this turns about to the most poorly received product of the year. But then again, most people thought cell phones were rude just a few years ago- now they’re ubiquitous.

Score one for the Internet

Something pretty major happened for the internet this last two weekends. The NCAA tournament was simulcast by CBS on the internet. It seems it was so successful the severs couldn't keep up with the demand.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- If you build it, they will come. Problem is, CBS didn’t know how many of them.

Does this mean the Internet has caught up with TV? Hardly, but it means The Web is becoming a viable alternative for broadcast media- not just print. Up until now, it was just video that you couldn't get on the television people would watch on the Internet. Still, web based media is less convenient than flipping on the TV, especially if you have a DVR and On Demand video.