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Whether the members of the association - 400 companies that together spend an estimated $100 billion a year on advertising and other forms of marketing - are willing to stick to the spending plans they made before the globe went mad is a crucial question. If marketers cut budgets, that could intensify the recent sharp downturn in consumer spending. Conversely, by maintaining - or increasing - spending levels, they just might shorten the length of whatever recession might be coming (if it is not

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There is more than one way to look at HSBC Bank's decision to buy 24 ad pages in this week's New York magazine, making it the largest single-issue advertiser in the magazine's history. Given the recent turmoil in the banking industry, one could see it as a case of bad timing. Is the American public really in the mood for an aggressive marketing pitch from a bank right now? Or one could consider it kismet?

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The ads run like TV commercials and they have begun airing on a single Manhattan route with expansion to 200 buses planned for the first quarter of next year. Obviously, targeted advertising is the name of the game, so you wouldn't be surprised to find GPS systems like this one popping up in major cities everywhere in the very near future.

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After the 2000 U.S. election, in which poor ballot design voided thousands of votes in Florida, Marcia Lausen, an Illinois graphic designer, helped launch Design for Democracy, a project to redesign the political process. Her book, Design for Democracy, has been given to 600 congress members and election officials across the U.S. She's redesigned ballots, creating clean, easy-to-use forms out of dense, confusing government documents. She believes voters will be less likely to be vexed by bad des

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Starting next spring with the 42nd Street-Times Square shuttle, passengers will see advertising outside the windows as the train travels between stations. The messages will look rather like jumpy 15-second TV ads. And that's just for starters. Think new digital media and turnstile wraps and other innovations. Every surface will be a blinking with one message or another. Is this the right way to cover public transport budget shortfalls?

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Nothing like an anthemy "Wanna Be in LA" single to kick off the album and tour. The usual route was to spin out a single, get some radio airplay, launch the album, tour the album. These days it's almost de rigueur to launch a single online at least a month or two before the product release to test the waters. So feel free to click into the video clip and rip into the scuzz-bucket guitars a week or two before official release. You'll be singing along by the second verse.

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But what's new is that Joost (which started a few years back using peer-to-peer TV technology) has now moved to an open delivery model that doesn't require you to download a special application. Just a browser. That's a big change of plans for the founders who brought you Skype. And shows you how open the future of distribution will be.

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He gave a talk wondering why the book industry still doesn't embrace the internet. Given that books as media are still widely used, why not share the whole digital content of books for free? Contrary to what common sense tells us - and common sense is not always a good guide, otherwise publishers, booksellers and writers would probably be doing something more profitable - the more you give, the more you gain.

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