I’ve gotten four different alerts for free pumpkin spice lattes this week, Halloween candy displays are already in every drug store and supermarket I’ve been to (it’s the beginning of the month; that’s my window these days) and there’s no Thursday afternoon baseball game for white noise for the first time since February (ok, that … Read more
My dad and I had a Sunday afternoon ritual during football season to watch–well, suffer through–the Giants and the Jets–which, if you look back on how those teams performed during the 1970s, brought particular pain on most Sundays. But the results paled to the frustration and Tourette’s-like rants that would spew from him when he … Read more
How slow a news day was it on the holiday yesterday? This was the leading story across an overwhelming number of sites I regularly visit, including DEADLINE, where Ted Johnson chose to share with the entertainment industry this: First Lady Jill Biden had tested positive for Covid and is experiencing mild symptoms, her communications director said. … Read more
One of the true feel-good stories of these times, fraught with the doom and gloom of political divide, feckless shilling for nominations, endless strikes against tyrannical megalomaniacs, climate change and ever-increasing numbers of those truly spooked by screaming headlines of conflated numbers shrieking that “COVID is not over” (congratulations, Rong-Gong And The Hyphenates, I saw … Read more
My esteemed onetime partner in FOX research crime Melva Goffney Benoit passed along this eye-opener as mine attempted to fight off a full day of migraines as they struggled to open today. Like moi, she’s seen more than her share of both good and bad brand research, and we’re both experienced and nuanced enough to … Read more
We’ve all got a little extra time on our hands this holiday weekend, enough to actually give the question we asked above a bit of thought. Because it’s not all that cut-and-dry to answer and, from my experience, there’s little that qualifies as a wrong answer, so long as YOU have a justification for thinking … Read more
I had almost forgotten how much I missed the wit and banter of late night television hosts, not that the term “late night” is really all that applicable any more. When they were in production, like the majority of those who collectively still watch the Jimmys (Kimmel and Fallon), Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Seth … Read more
In worlds where the fates of thousands and the destination of millions of dollars rides on the accuracy of results from a smattering of votes, it’s almost understandable that there are countless examples of people complaining about outcomes. Lord knows we’ve seen it in politics–lately, especially. We’ve also seen it in media since–well, pretty much … Read more
TO: KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FR: STEVE LEBLANG, MEDIA CONSULTANT RE: A CRISIS IN YOUR HOMETOWN Dear Madame Vice President: Forgive if you can my boldness and directness, but considering a day doesn’t go by when you or one of your colleagues sends me several e-mails asking for my money to … Read more
This has been a seminal summer for the world of streaming content. The platforms that have enabled the “peak TV” world have been under intense pressure, mostly by Wall Street, to do better, and the reality is that the best they have been able to do is to cut costs and bodies and, where possible, … Read more