Broadcast and cable networks are FINALLY wrapping up their Upfront deals, although a surprisingly low percentage of fourth quarter Upfront commitments have been firmed up even as the fourth quarter network scatter market begins to generate some heat. A consistent pattern is emerging: advertisers will avoid making budget commitments until absolutely necessary; they will extend options periods as long as possible to avoid locking in their spending; and they will hold off on scatter buys until as close to air dates as they possibly can.

Relationships between employees and their companies and between companies and their clients are increasingly short-lived. Positions are jobs, rather than careers.

Jack Myers Note: Although I believed in 1993 that the dynamics and realities confronting the advertising and media industry today would have materialized by the end of the last decade, the fundamental truths from my 1993 book Adbashing: Surviving the Attacks on Advertising are even more relevant and pertinent now. The downsizing of America is finally underway, with a vengeance. Unfortunately, it may be too late for many advertising-dependent companies to learn and apply these lessons.

It's called value. Marketers have lost their sense of advertising and media value. The drive toward increased media commoditization, which has reduced the cost basis of most major media in the past few years

Originally published in 1998: The changes that businesspeople are facing between today and 2005 are not simple paradigm shifts. They are isoquantic. A paradigm shift is a restructuring of the patterns we rely on for decision-making. For example, the transition of audiences from broadcast to cable TV has been a paradigm shift -- a slow change in patterned behavior.

W. Edwards Deming is considered the father of quality management. His Theory for Management, published originally in the 1950s, is required reading for all executives who are struggling to manage a business today. I originally published Deming's 14-Point Theory in my 1993 book, Adbashing: Surviving the Attacks on Advertising.

Scientists recently discovered a process in the body's immune system called "anergy." It has commonly been believed that, when an invading virus attacks the body, white blood cells race to the point of invasion, surrounding and destroying the invading virus.

Too often in the past, corporate strategies have been determined without the input of marketing trends and marketplace realities.

ignored. Again, a vision for a successful future is clear, but most in the industry are again failing to act. The following commentary is reprinted from my 1993 book Adbashing: Surviving the Attacks on Advertising. Additional Classic Jack commentaries can be read at www.classicjackmyers.com.