“No, neither Google nor YouTube is engaging in bubble-think — but watch for the onset of that condition in coming days and weeks, as the GoogTube deal gets turned into a valuation yardstick by hungry also-rans and competitors. ‘Let’s see, YouTube had X users and sold for $1.6 billion — therefore my company with 1/20th X users is worth at least $80 million!’ That sort of talk is cheap.”

“The spot: Singer John Mellencamp leans on the fender of a Chevy pickup, strumming an acoustic guitar. He sings, among other things, ‘This is our country.’ Meanwhile, a montage of American moments flies by: Rosa Parks on a bus. Martin Luther King preaching…”

“Nikon did what every major brand should be doing…it got out of its own way and let the real people that counted do the talking: their own consumers. Here’s the frame-by-frame: Nikon sent a bunch of their D80 cameras to a group of Flickr users and let them snap to their heart’s content. They took a bunch of submissions and used them as part of a 3-page spread, which ran in places like BusinessWeek…”