The death of everything.

The other day I saw an article about the death of baseball. Every day, we see a dozen articles about the death of television. (See the Ad Contrarian for more about that.) 

And of course, Washington being what it is, we see myriad articles about everything from the death of Democracy to the death of freedom to the death of fill-in-the-blank.

But let me use baseball--the death thereof--as the metaphor for today.

I'll put it simply.

IMHO baseball could revitalize itself if it returned to baseball. (Just like agencies could revitalize themselves if they returned to the precepts of persuasive communication.)

Baseball, and this is dogma as far as I'm concerned, was meant to be played in the daytime.

Yet today, there are virtually no day games.

The thrill of sneaking a transistor radio into your desk and surreptitiously listening to a ballgame, is all but gone.

A ballgame--no matter what game it is--should also last about two hours. From soup to nuts. So cut the number of commercials, and TV timeouts, and endless blather by polyester-clad ex-ballplayers.

Finally, take the names of banks and telcos and insurance companies off of stadiums. I'd gladly go to the House that Ruth Built, but the House that Jamie Dimon Built has no appeal.

In other words, in short, in sum, and in toto.

Return the game to a time when things made sense.

Sunshine. Brevity. For people, not banks.

We could use a bit of that in the advertising industry, too.