In a rousing discussion at MediaPosts’s Forecast conference, Ephron, Papazian & Ephron partner Erwin Ephron and Viacom Cable Networks VP Betsy Frank took opposite sides regarding the future of advertising. Ephron told attendees, “clutter, inattention, commercial avoidance in the old media, and a manic fascination with the new media ignores the most fundamental change in our business…Advertising doesn’t work as well anymore.” Frank says that all a bunch of hooey and “absolutely nothing will change” and “cable was supposed to kill broadcast TV, the remote control was going to kill advertising, and the Internet and video games would be the end of TV. So far, they’ve been adopted, they all co-exist, and people are consuming more of everything.” Advertising panels are so much fun, aren’t they?
