COLUMN: Scott G often works in the advertising industry and he’s frequently appalled by what he sees, as when large corporations insult your intelligence with misleading marketing, or when they treat you like absolute morons with super-silly or saccharine-sweet ads.

NEW YORK, N.Y. — In cooperation with Xerox and XMPie, on May 22, direct marketing experts, Ballantine and DME, are hosting a free one-to-one marketing thought leadership breakfast in New York City at the New York Merchandising Mart Building - 41 Madison Avenue - from 8:30 to 11:30. Getting marketing messages noticed and generating responses will be the main focus of the free seminar.

AUSTIN, Texas — High-performance MDS Advertising is among Austin’s top dozen creative ad agencies according to results announced Friday in the Austin Business Journal ranking of the top 25 advertising firms in Austin. MDS has been a creative secret weapon for its clients since 1991 when MDS moved to Austin from Los Angeles.

COLUMN: A manifesto entitled 100 Ways to Kill a Concept is currently bouncing around the Internet. It is being sent in anger, frustration and/or glee by anyone who has ever had the misfortune to present an original idea to a boneheaded boss or calcified committee. Scott G lauds author Michael Iva for his horrific hundred.

BOONTON, N.J. — The top 20 cable operators are ramping up to grab a slice of the lucrative small business phone market, a move that could cost incumbent phone companies more than four billion dollars over the next five years, says a new market research report from Insight Research Corp. Incumbent phone companies are expected to loose more than 1.5 million small business phone lines to cable competitors by the close of 2007.