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The median age of a TV viewer is now 54. Has advertising basically become a junk science?

I'm a white male, age 18 to 49. Everyone listens to me, no matter how dumb my suggestions are. — Homer J Simpson (@homersquotes) February 7, 2011 Amen, Homer. We were all taught to believe that the central idea of… Continue Reading

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Walter White, Tony Soprano, Don Draper, Jimmy McNulty (and Hannah Horvath) … what’s up with our love of the anti-hero?

Think about this for a second: in general, the best TV shows of the past 10-15 years or so are believed to be The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men and some combination of other shows you like (Walking Dead, foreign… Continue Reading

RIP Harold Ramis, who may have spawned more future comedy writers/directors/performers than anyone except “The Simpsons”

I won’t go too deep into the details of Harold Ramis’ life — this isn’t a hard news site by any stretch of the imagination, and the best obit you’ll find is here — but I will pull out one… Continue Reading

When CBS pushed aside Dan Marino for Tony Gonzalez, was it a straight-up ‘asshole-for-good-guy’ trade?

FOX’s NFL pre-game show — with Curt, Terry, Jimmy, Michael et al — kills CBS’ show in the ratings, so this off-season, CBS had a shake-up: Dan Marino and Shannon Sharpe out, Tony Gonzalez (recently retired) in. Things like this had been… Continue Reading

Megan Draper, Bob Benson, and of course Don Draper … what might happen in Mad Men Season 7?

We don’t know much about Mad Men Season 7, although we know a little bit. Let’s try to piece some stuff together, no? 1. For sure: the premiere date is April 13th.  2. For sure: the final season will be divided into two parts,… Continue Reading

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Transparent, a new Amazon Prime show from Jill Soloway (and starring Mark Duplass, Jeffrey Tambor and Judith Light) could be the next big thing

Amazon Prime had two original shows (well, two main ones) come out in this past cycle — Alpha House and Betas — and while both were pretty good (IMHO), neither had a cultural resonance on par with something like House of Cards (Netflix) or, let’s face… Continue Reading

Hello, friends: Jim Nantz and Phil Simms are probably working 23 NFL games as announcers in 2014

Some people love the Nantz/Simms pairing, and others hate it (I think you’d find that about most lead announcing crews for any sport on any network; no one is completely revered, even Pat Summerall). Next year you’re going to get… Continue Reading

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Is Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods or soccer ultimately responsible for the best NIKE ad of all-time?

NIKE isn’t an official sponsor of the next two grand-scale global sporting events — the Winter Olympics, starting tonight, or the World Cup, starting this summer — but it’s really hard to talk about sports and marketing without talking about… Continue Reading