We have always been a litigious society but it is just getting ridiculous. Punch someone and you can sue the person you hit because you broke your finger. Sue someone because hot coffee burned you. Blame teachers for your child's bad behaviour in school when teachers are given no ability to discipline.
Now, you can sue someone because food makes you fat!
Fat man sues food chains.
Is this man so idiotic as to think that fast food is actually healthy? Use your head people! It's called common sense. Have we become so stupid as to have to rely on a court to determine common sense. No one wants to take responsibility for anything these days. We have become a lazy bunch of losers who blame everyone else for our faults and shortcomings. It's just sad. It's very sad.
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Interesting news clips from Rick Bruner's Executive Summary Newsletter
Signs of Ad Recovery
There is nothing we marketers love more than drinking our own bathwater. Here's my contribution: a list of headlines I've seen in the last week or so that would seem to indicate a rally in the flagging ad market for the second half of this year. Wishful thinking? All I know is that in the pundit business, three makes a trend, and here are six hopeful articles:
- "Madison Avenue Shows Optimism" - Upbeat analysis by New York Times ad guru Stuart Elliott, in which he claims that many major ad agencies are looking for opportunity in the downturn and sensing an ad industry recovery in the second half of this year and are hiring senior talent.
"The New York Times Company Reports Improved Results for Second Quarter 2002" - Official press release, in which Russell Lewis, the company's president and CEO, said "NYTD, our digital division, experienced strong advertising revenue growth, which helped it achieve its most profitable quarter ever."
"Ad Resurgence Helps Buoy Latest Figures from Yahoo" - New York Times
"Slimmed-Down DoubleClick Turns Profit" - Internet Advertising Report
"Newspaper results hint at advertising rebound" - Reuters analyzing recent positive profit announcements from The New York Times and Gannett.
"June Magazine Advertising Revenue Continues to Grow" - Magazine Publishers of America press release, which continues "More Major Advertising Categories Increase Spending: Total magazine advertising revenue for the month of June increased 6.1% compared to June of last year."
The only spoiler to all this good news is McCann-Erickson's famous ad industry prognosticator, who recently downgraded his estimates for 2002, but only slightly, and either way he's still predicting growth over last year (now of 2.1% instead of 2.4%). As reported in MediaPost, he explained his downgrade by saying, "In December I was too optimistic. Now I'm too pessimistic."
- Rick Bruner 7/17/2002 permanent link
Now, it's just a matter of how long we have to wait.
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