"Our basic argument is as straightforward as it is urgent: when it comes to thriving in a hypercompetitive marketplace, 'playing it safe' is no longer playing it smart. In an economy defined by overcapacity, oversupply, and utter sensory overload - an economy in which everyone already has more than enough of whatever it is you're selling - the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for a truly distinctive set of ideas about where your industry should be going. You can't do big things as a competitor if you're content with doing things only a little better than the competition."

"This book is devoted to the proposition that in business...the smart can take from the strong - that the best way to outperform the competition is to outthink the competition...Mavericks do the work that matters most - the work of originality, creativity, and experimentation. They demonstrate that you can build companies around high ideals and fierce competitive ambitions, that the most powerful way to create economic value is to embrace a set of values that go beyond just amassing power, and that business, at its best, is too exciting, too important, and too much fun to be left to the dead hand of business as usual." William C. Taylor & Polly LaBarre

Quotations above by Taylor & LaBarre from their introduction to Mavericks at Work. Amazon info here. Check out their blog here. Just started the book. So far, so very good.

Things learned on the way to learning other things: More words of wisdom from the great Rosser Reeves...

"You know, only advertising men hold seminars and judge advertising. The public doesn't hold seminars and judge advertising. The public either acts or it doesn't act."

"I think a great many copywriters in this business earn their living because they haven't been caught."

"It's a cliche of the business that if it's a good campaign sales go up, and if it's a bad campaign sales go down. Well, that isn't true. We know that you can run a lousy campaign and sales will go up. You can run a brilliant campaign and sales can go down - due to other factors in the market."

Lots of breaking news to share/reflect/comment on since my last post.

When bad stuff happens to good people, sometimes they deserve it: The Edelman PR - Wal-Mart blogging mess. I have a good deal of respect for Edelman but this Wal-Mart thing was clearly way over the line. David Weinberger has a very good read on the situation and comments including one from Richard Edelman here. It's all about transparency and will be forever more. What to do now? How about the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. David writes...

I personally think there are two fundamental roles for PR in the new world: Transparent advocacy and facilitating open, genuine engagement among customers and companies. Transparent advocacy means that the agency argues for its client, providing useful information to people who want to receive it. Genuine engagement means the agency helps its client participate in the Web conversation honestly and frankly, whether that's through employee blogging, customer forums, or ways yet to be invented. Just as the agency can be a transparent advocate for the client on the Web, it should be an advocate for Web values to the client, counseling the client to be frank, honest, and open to criticism. (An agency may also create publicity stunts, but there's nothing particularly webby about that.)"

Read the entire post with comments here. Bravo David!

btw, where was Steve Rubel in all of this? Steve - if you were somehow involved in this effort before the news broke then shame on you (you know better Steve). Read Steve's comments and others in the wake of mess aftershocks here. Steve, what did you know and when did you know it? LATER: Steve responds in comments, he was not involved.

Jeff Jarvis, known for his share of good ideas, posits his four point blogging pledge...

1. No one can buy my editorial voice or opinion.
2. No one can buy my editorial space; if it's an ad it will clearly be an ad.
3. No one should be confused about the source of anything on my pages.
4. I will disclose my business relationships whenever it is relevant and possible.

Bravo Jeff! Well said. The Wal-Mart lesson of last week writ large: Let the reader beware. Read Jeff's entire post here.

Joe Mandese over at MediaDailyNews writes about analysts downgrading the outlook for ad spending...

"Interestingly, advertising growth seems to be tracking real [gross domestic product] growth instead of nominal GDP growth, as it did in the past plus some," writes Merrill Lynch ad industry analyst Lauren Rich Fine in a report released early this morning. "This supports our belief that media no longer enjoys the benefit of above average rate inflation, rather the opposite where increased competition & measurement is putting pressure on rates." Read Joe's writing here.

At the day job our take continues to be 07 is going to be one very, very difficult and different kind of year for ad supported measured media.

Other povs from eMarketer on the ad spend here and on Google's share of ad spend here.

Great talent, very smart hire: Myke Julius, the legendary urban poet and media rock star, signed by KKBT, Los Angeles. Brilliant move on the part of Barry Mayo and Kevin Fleming. Myke is the goods. Myke's page at KKBT here. Congrats and cheers to all! Lucky owner - Radio One.