Next Fall, you may see a few new and unexpected shows on the schedule. Don’t be surprised to see sitcoms and dramas with titles such as:

Dancing with the Starbucks

Nip/Tucks

Are you ready for branded television? Well, with more and more folks fast-forwarding over commercials, marketers are looking for new ways to get their brands in your face. One strategy that is picking up steam is the
creation of branded content. Think of a feature length film starring the King from Burger King commercials (seriously), BudTV, and an Office Max created show for ABC.

Will shows conceptualized by advertising firms and molded with brand awareness in mind work? It seems a bit unlikely. But the big brands need to make a move to cope with the fast forward button that will soon be core to every television remote control. Who knows, maybe they will figure out a way to go back and rebrand classic shows. Stay tuned for Chico and Chalupa.

Payback Really is a Beeatch

The Dem leaders’ key challenge over the next several months will be making sure that the party has a unified set of goals and focuses on governance and not payback. Hubris, arrogance and abuses of power lose elections. To recall that lesson, you only have go back in history about, oh, 72 hours.

Truth Be Told

Does it matter that Bush told a lie when he insisted Rumsfeld would hold his position for the long haul (at the very time he was making a final decision on his replacement)? Maybe the more interesting question is how a political team that has been so effective made the terrible error of not canning Rummy two weeks before the election. At the very least, they would probably still have the Senate.

And the reaction to Rummy’s departure from a soldier in Iraq: ““Who’s Rumsfeld?”.

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Giving Kegstanding a Bad Name

Two fraternity members who appear in Borat’s movie have just sued the studio because of their own drunken and offensive behavior that was on display while cameras were rolling. Frat dudes suing over being drunk and offensive … Sounds like there’s a possibility for a class action suit here, no?

Flying Laptops

While anyone can support the spirit of Denise Richard’s decision to hurl laptops carried by members of the paparazzi off of a hotel deck, one would hope she would first look down below to make sure no one happened to be walking by.

and…

Forget politics, the biggest win of the week was
Rutgers’ amazing upset … Poppa T and the Episcopal rap crew … With Dems controlling the Senate, expect
Bolton to be gone … The U.K. is tracking
30 terror plots and 1,600 suspects … Rangel one day, one gaffe … Did you know there are ice fields in Africa? There won’t be for long … YouTube’s first Rodney King moment … And Slate’s Explainer asks, Mommy, What’s an Evangelical? …