Pay attention to Seinfeld
Sorry for the brain dump today. Haven't posted in several days because I have been teaching seminars at Newsplex, but several things have caught my interest along the way.

One of them, today, is from the Wall Street Journal's interview with Jerry Seinfeld (sub. req. or p. B3 in the paper). Seinfeld has created a "Webisode" for American Express where he frolics about New York with an animated Superman. Seinfeld's glory days on TV may be over, but I pay attention to him because a) I still think he's one of the most creative people on the planet and b) my 17-year-old son will do anything to not miss one of his show's reruns. That tells me something. And here's what Seinfeld had to say when asked, "How have your own media habits changed?"

"I'm definitely watching less TV, and spending more time on the Internet at night, because the Internet is, you know, so personal. I can see things that are of interest only to me, whereas TV is a mass medium (and, in his view, has declined in quality). ... So if I'm doing it, other people must be doing it.

Just below that on the page is an article titled "Marketing's Creative Thinkers See New Ways to Grab Attention." These remarks by Ty Montague, co-creative director of Wieden + Kennedy's New York office, caught my eye: "A new business needs to spring up where creative control rests with the client," he said. And, "In the next 10 years, it will be fairly common for scripted programming to come out of what is traditionally thought of as an agency."

And so, in an advertising-supported medium, how long, do you think, before that "scripted programming" includes news?