Long live.

Lately two commercials have swept Facebook feeds and spread through at least our industry like gossip at an all-girls' school.

First there was the "Mom" effort by Weiden + Kennedy for Old Spice. And then, also by W + K, there was the Olympic "Mom" spot for Proctor and Gamble.

Both of these spots fly in the face of the trite and specious proclamation that TV is dead.

What we should be declaring dead is "boredom."

Consumers, truth be told, will tolerate anything but being bored.

In fact, last week when "Wired" magazine featured an interactive push-button print ad by Motorola, people ripped it out of the magazine and shared it around the office.

Maybe print isn't dead if it's interesting.

Next, maybe we'll even stumble upon a radio campaign that excites us.

Before the recent spate of TV dramas of the "Orange is the New Black"-ilk emerged, there were oh-so-many people writing off the very notion of TV viewing. Reality isn't following that story line. People will watch--and probably "lean back" while doing so, if you give them something good.

Forty-five years ago, Howard Luck Gossage said "People read what interests them. Sometimes it's an ad."

I think we can expand on Gossage's wisdom.

People watch, read, share, laugh-about, comment upon what interests them. Therefore youu'd better make your creative interesting.

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BTW, Part II of the creative revolution at least in the States, was led not by Bill Bernbach and his spawn but, I think, by Phil Dusenberry and his. Dusenberry had the simple notion that TV spots have to be better than the programming they are running on. Better written. Better scored. Better directed.

As the quality of TV shows has improved of late, think "Breaking Bad," or "Downton Abbey," the bar for our industry has been raised. It's our job the make something better. Otherwise we're an interruption and an annoyance, rather than something interesting and entertaining.