Just about a month ago, we wondered here if the end of traditional media had finally arrived. Today, we see that Gap is putting another nail in the coffin. This autumn's "Born to Fit" campaign has just about everything in it — everything, that is, except the mix of traditional media we are used to seeing. Instead of the big television campaign, we see an engaging Facebook page, as well as an iPhone app called StyleMixer, an online fashion show, and hundreds of in-store concerts.

Mobile? Check.
Social? Check.
In-store? Check.
TV? Not so much.

Is this the model for the future?

Observant blogger Louis Mason points out a biting little detail that Google has included in their Auto Complete feature: trash talk. Apparently, when you type in "Facebook is" or "Twitter is," the dropdown options are, well, funny/insulting, with choices like, "Facebook is for old people" or "Twitter is retarded." And so on and so on – for Microsoft, MySpace, etc. Okay, okay, we get it. You don't like the other playa's.

Of course, when you put in "Google is" you get phrases like, "Google is your friend" and "Google is always right." More aptly, "Google is taking over the world." I'd like to meet the cunning engineer that came up with that one.

 But there's one little problem – I think they forgot about YouTube. Type in "YouTube is" and the dropdown choices are "YouTube is so slow," "YouTube is broken," and "YouTube is upside down." (What?) Either Google forgot about that money acquisition a few years back, or it stopped at MySpace. Of course, there's that other option – that Auto Complete accurately reflects what people are typing in.

Try your name – it's fun. Apparently, I (Ana) am beautiful, positive, love, and perfection. I am also someone's life, and "in their DNA." How lovely.

And the common "I"? Well, I can't even write this, so I'll just have to share it via screenshot. That way you'll know, too, that I'm not making it up. But believe me, you can't make this stuff up. It's just too good.

Which is your fave?

Layoffs in the ad industry have inspired a documentary called "Lemonade," a project of former Arnold copywriter Erik Proulx, who last year started the blog Please Feed the Animals for unemployed advertising professionals.

The trailer launched this week on the movie's website, lemonademovie.com and will air there once completed.

Prouix interviewed 15 former creative and account directors from major US ad agencies, all of whom had been laid off – but then used it as an opportunity to do something different, such as starting their own businesses or making some other kind of life change. (Hence, lemons –> lemonade.)

This comment on Ad Age pretty much sums it up:

At the risk of sounding heartless, I think one of the (only) good
things about a recession is how it weeds out people who aren't
passionate about their careers and jobs. Based on this trailer, it
seems that many of these people found their passion in other areas –
leaving room in their previous careers for people who want to be there.
I work in the digital media, and the same thing happened when the
market collapsed in 2001 — the only people who remained in digital
were those who truly belonged there, and it was a blessing.

I love it when people use laymen's terms in industry quotes to show people that they're just regular guys/gals. Here's a classic example, from DM News:

I mean, who (besides me, of course) doesn't love secret sauce? It's the new mystery meat.

Let's put this quote in context. Jim is saying just plain web analytics just ain't enough anymore – and it's true. There are so many other data sources to pull from: social media, company websites, customer call centers, and even bricks-and-mortar stores.

Particularly for retail brands, it's important to be able to pull that data together and make sense of it in order to offer customers the best kind of personalization – the kind where you give them what they want without ever having to ask what that actually is.

So yes, get over your Google Analytics, because it's just not good enough anymore. However – I think Google, or at least from what we garner from the text ad below the DMNews article, disagrees. Chiggity check it –>