Tear Down That Wall

Who can deny that the “Berlin Wall” that once divided Madison Avenue and Hollywood appears to be crashing down. Or that these once-rival superpowers seem to be engaged in a mutual “glasnost,” exploring new ideas to hold onto power in the face of a new common enemy —lack of attention.

Like all of us in the ad world, Hollywood—itself a major advertiser—has realized that conventional advertising is not as efficient as it once was. It, too, is competing with the Web, videogames, TiVo, wireless phones and all the other emergent technologies.