The upfront isn’t dying; it’s a good idea. A smart, sensible way to buy and sell time, space, air, electronic signals, dead tree products, ads on foreheads, whatever. And the idea is flexible enough to react and respond to even the most dramatic changes in the marketplace.

In San Francisco in the 1960s, an iconic adman named Howard Luck Gossage declared that he would never recommend outdoor advertising to his clients because it was a blot on the landscape. It was typical of the errant genius of Gossage (who, if you’re not familiar with the name, was the guy who introduced Marshall McLuhan to America). But I’m sure it was dismissed as just a crackpot move at the time.

If you are reading this column in the print edition of Media magazine, you may be holding the world in your hands - literally. Sound serious? I am. It is.

In a wonderfully reasoned column this week, Al Ries says that there have been five mass media evolutions that have created enormous upheavals in society: the book, the periodical, radio, TV and the Internet. It seems to me that there have been interim mass media developments that should be on his upheaval list…

Marketers are increasingly cutting branded entertainment deals that give them a presence in multiple episodes of a particular show during a full season. While many go with the same product in the various appearances, GMC used its link with FX drama “The Riches” to plug two separate vehicles–one an SUV, the other a CUV.

We continue to strive to reshape our business and our future. We have done so each year since the creation of GroupM in 2003. Media agencies are largely a reflection of the sophistication of their client base. We service the most sophisticated and media savvy clients in the world and, therefore, we have to excel at our core competencies. But it cannot stop there. Market leadership dictates that we must be restless in driving innovation and play the role of industry shaper. 2007 was marked by major innovation for GroupM in several key areas that illustrated our ability to meet the challenge of leadership as we reshaped the media industry. GroupM made a series of significant moves designed to take advantage of new business opportunities and to help our media agencies position themselves as marketplace leaders.

Europe and Asia may be overrun with thumb tribes, but so far, our pointy-headed heartland has failed to pick up on the idea of marketing ads over mobile phones. I have my doubts that it ever will.

This sentiment doesn’t make me popular, but the acquisition of DoubleClick by Google will be profound. Because, with all of what I’m about to ramble about, Google-DoubleClick should be a one-stop shop of search and display ads across a huge universe of sites. No one has explained to me why they can’t do for display advertising what they’ve done with AdSense. Agencies tell me, “They won’t come up with the big, new, innovative and custom ideas.”

OMG, I am so busted. That love bracelet Julie gave me last week after third-period virtual Home Ec class - the one she made me promise never to take off - had a GPS tracker embedded in it! I don’t have a problem with the GPS system my parents use on me, the one that coordinates between transmitters in my car, my sneakers and my jacket; I seem to be able to stay one step ahead of that, but the bracelet caught me off guard.

“Agencies and advertisers are growing more interested in neuroscience–measuring brain waves, galvanic skin response, eye movements, pulse rates and the like–in their never-ending efforts to improve effectiveness,” Stuart Elliott tells us. But since in the real world people are multitasking while they watch TV, it might be smart to not only hotwire brains, but also have a webcam on top of the TV so that when researchers see the needles jump, they can check out the viewers on video to see if there are external circumstance other than the ads that produce galvanic skin responses or spikes in brain waves.