Lauren Rich Fine

Merrill Lynch appears to believe the ad industry's perennial claim that - this time - it will become medium-neutral, ending its less than completely rational spending bias toward television and putting less budget behind TV upfront, according to MediaPost. These assertions annually appear more and more naive, but then, the Cubs did clinch a pennant last year. The firm's analyst, Lauren Rich Fine, noted that demand for TV upfront seems soft right now, although similar conditions preceded the last few upfronts, all of which turned out to be record-breaking years. The sense from speakers was that the internet was hot, TV and radio weren't, and other media are milling about. Branded entertainment was painted as effective, but limited in potential scale.