Warner Brothers which fronts Led Zeppelin, Red Hot Chile Peppers, Madonna, the Doors st al has signed a deal with Youtube to share advertising by allowing use of its own copyrighted product.  Read about it  here .  If this becomes a trend, it overcomes a significant legal hurdle for Youtube.

Interesting piece by Alan Schulman, CD of Brand New World, about the need for "above the line" agencies to collaborate with all those pesky little guys full of original ideas that the clients sic on them.

Schulman is absolutely right, of course.  But the good news for pesky little guys with original ideas is that a big agency’s idea of "collaboration" is to do their very best to ignore you.  Why is that good news?  In the short run, it’s a pain in the ass as the big agency does everything in its power to big foot you while maintaining an impeccable facade of "collaboration". 

In the long run, as more money moves to more complex interactive media, clients will catch on and the big ad agencies (a few excepted) will appear more and more pathetic and desperate.  The hegemony of their distribution advantage will not last forever. 

Smart pesky guys (and gals) will rule.  The old-time ad guys will keep boondoggling off to LA to shoot their :30 second extravaganzas with failed film actors and directors and cluster at the Polo Lounge over their Mojitos talking of past glories and wondering what happened to their half million dollar salaries.