Jaffe Juice

...but I told you so.

Stunning tumble for NBC's 'The Office' Tuesday
Tuesday night’s episode of the new NBC comedy "The Office" managed just a 2.7 rating among 18-49s, slipping 10 percent from already weak lead-in “Scrubs,” which posted just a 3.0. “Office” also slipped 10 percent versus the 3.0 “Committed” had averaged in that exact timeslot, and was down 46 percent versus last week’s premiere episode. It averaged a mere 5.9 million total viewers.

MLB Advanced Media, the new media division of Major League Baseball, said on Wednesday that it has now sold over 10 million tickets online for the 2005 season, up from the 4.6 million tickets it has sold by this time last year.

It's an interesting proxy...certainly for the skeptics that think growth (adoption) of the Web might be slowing down, activity on the Web is doing anything but.

Not really a twist, but just some non-scientific speculation.

First of all, Chairman-CEO of PepsiCo Beverages and Foods North America, Gary Rodkin has resigned (insert cough here) and has been replaced by Dawn Hudson + John Compton. Dawn and John are rockstars and represent the "next generation" (punny) of new marketing thinkers and visionaries.

To me, this isn't a coincidence and we need only go back to the announcement earlier this month that Pepsi had gone on a celebrity and TV-free diet to connect the dots. Bottom line is that change is hard and along the way, there will be casualties....inevitable resistence will result in obliteration.

"Euclid of Alexandria (born 325 BC; died 265 BC) is the most prominent mathematician of antiquity best known for his treatise on mathematics The Elements."

At no point in his career did he work in an Advertising Agency, nor did he assume the title of "Creative Director."

I have to say that I always get nervous when anything is done to the already precarious state of creativity...to make it less art and more science, so when I heard mOne had come up with something called mEuclid, which essentially optimizes creative rotation/weighting etc. in order to boost response rates, I was (and still am) a little nervous.

"How Can General Motors Remake Itself?" asks Stuart Elliot from the New York Times today. I'm glad he asked (me)...my response, caveated by Stuart's warning that free advice is sometimes worth what it cost:

The most important step General Motors can take is "to reverse-engineer its marketing strategy," said Joseph Jaffe, president of Jaffe, a new-marketing consulting company in Westport, Conn., "from a top-down approach to a bottom-up approach."

"General Motors has forgotten who drives its cars," he added. "It all starts with one consumer, and you build from there."

To accomplish that, G.M. must accelerate a shift from its traditional "mass-market, one-size-fits-all approach," Mr. Jaffe said, as epitomized by broad-based television commercials and print advertisements, and more ardently embrace unconventional tactics. Among them, he listed producing video games that double as advertising; running ads in video games; inviting consumers to create their own ads, on Web sites; and making use of branded entertainment, embedding ads in television programs and movies.

...what are your thoughts?

So eBay fired its agency Goodby, Silverstein and Partners (only one of the THE most creative agencies in the modern era of advertising) - Jeff Goodby, Rich Silverstein legends (I've never met Partners, but I hear she's silent, but violent)

So many red flags on this that it looks like an invariable minefield. According to eBay spokeperson, Chris Donlay, "our policy is not to comment on vendor relations." - after 6 years and millions of dollars later, you think of your agency as a vendor? Don't you think that's part of the problem???

Second flag is the reliance on the 30-second spot/mass marketing. I don't care how creative you are, it's just not possible to capture the essence of eBay - logical, rational, emotional, animal, vegetable or mineral in 30-seconds.

Despite the buxom breasted antics of a hardly controversial Super Bowl commercial that seemed to declare GoDaddy the winner of the 2005 Yawnfest (by default), it appears that relevance and utility trump entertainment...or put differently, persuasion and intent win over pure awareness.

GoDaddy will not be extending their contract with the Ad Store, and lo and behold are opting for a more direct approach instead. Even more surprising is the fact CEO, Bob Parsons, did not report this on his blog...although he did mention that GoDaddy has its own radio show (starting 3/30) on Sirius and XM.

After a 2-episode test, the "Two Minute Television Network" will produce a full series of 26 episodes of their 2 minute reality series, Genius on a Shoestring (release is below)

It would appear that what I call M.D.D. (media deficit disorder) is indeeed a reality - pun not intended.

Two Minute Television Network's first series airs on nearly 200 TV outlets, 114 major websites and one cellphone network.

The times, they are a changin'. This past weekend's front page of the New York Times Business section carried a lead piece titled, "The Future of the 30-second spot"

The article referenced companies such as Navic, Invidi,Visible World and Open TV; the promise of "addressable advertising" and the inevitable challenges - headed up by privacy, but also including question marks surrounding the willingness of consumers to interact (at all)

At last week's ANA TV Conference, I must admit that I was relishing hearing the might Les speak. Now that I have heard him, I'm not sure whether to say I was pleased or disappointed.

I suppose that part of the experience is to revel in who he is, rather than what he says. He is a powerful man and he controls a boatload of media. That being said, I couldn't help but wonder who controls his strings....his responses revealed no more than a seasoned and somewhat grizzled sales veteran.

This week I'll be moderating a panel discussion on Creative Excellence on iMedia Connection. My panelists include:

• Mike Yapp, ECD Carat Interactive
• Scott Witt, Group Director, Digital, MediaVest Worldwide
• Daniel Bernard, Global Head Advertising Development, Reuters Consumer Media
• Mark Silva, Principal and Founder, Real Branding

Check it out...

En route to the AAAA's Media Conference, I sat next to a media professional (in the TV business I might add...) who was telling me that once NYPD Blue came to an end, he and his wife would most likely not watch TV at that night/time i.e. look for a replacement, and would instead find something else to do such as read a book.

This thought stirred something that I've been mulling over for a while now: is it possible that consumers are slowly but surely (and either knowingly or unknowingly) weaning themselves off TV (as in live TV) in favor of a host of alternatives - such as the DVD, gaming, the Web, books, talking etc?

This week's issue of Ad Age is their whopper 75th Anniversary issue, titled "75 years of ideas."

Sidebar 1: That's 75 years of ideas...not BIG ideas

Sidebar 2: if ideas have been around for 75 years, why is it only recently that coming up with them has become such a hot topic?

Anyway I digress...this post is about how agencies typically fail at doing the thing they are meant to be best at...advertising (themselves)

Saw an ad online for the DVD release of "The Incredibles"and as you'll see there is a telephone vibrating (reminds of the gold treasure chest of Lester Wunderman yore). When you mouse over the telephone, a panel appears with a telephone number and a message, "call for your secret mission."

I called...and ala the scene from the movie, this time I was Mr Incredible and received my orders...

As reported by Thomas Mucha in Business 2.0, Gap's Sarah Jessica Parker endorsement deal has come to an end and Joss Stone will step in to try and reverse the tide of declining sales.

The reasons given sound logical enough, except I wonder how long it's going to take for GAP to realize that the answer doesn't like in exchanging an actor for a singer, but rather in exchanging old marketing for new marketing...

Here's a piece from Slate, called:

What Have You Done With My Office?
NBC body-snatches the BBC series.

I feel really strongly about this one...and it's with mixed feelings that I say, I hope the Office fails miserably. Even though, Initiative's PropheSEE (which uses Internet chat/buzz to predict future success/failure of TV programming) has predicted a hit for this show...I'm hoping to be one lone voice that swims against the current on this one...

Here's why...

...that Joseph Jaffe is the smartest person in the world (respondents included family members, friends, and other people who would say anything for $10)

Segue to Mindshare's new study on product placement (as reported in MediaPost) which concludes that consumers are ok with product placement. In fact, 80% of Americans have a positive view towards this kind of advertising.

This is a great article on the state (and future...) of advertising. It's taken from THE NEW YORKER, and credit goes to Eric Porres, COO of Underscore Marketing, for letting me know about it. P.S. Eric is a great "giver" (do with that what you will)

I'm running around in Manhattan today searching for inspiration, so I thought I'd rather post this and invite your commentary. I think the article is loaded with good stuff (my personal favorite: fart advertising)

As reported in MarketWatch, Dave Sifry's Technorati.com reported Tuesday it is now tracking slightly more than 8 million blogs.

The article cites Mary Meeker from Morgan Stanley who calls blogs "a huge business opportunity."

It also cites a research study from Outsell, Inc., which although referring to blogs as "a horrible name and are virtually unknown" also concedes that "they are going to be big" and will inevitably lead to a tipping point in the information industry.

Just heard the panel on Branded Entertainment, featuring Dave Burwick, Mark Kaline (Ford) and Stuart Shlossman (Madison Road Entertainment)...moderated by Jonah Bloom.

They released a study on b/e which I hope you'll be able to get from the ANA's website, but if not...just e-mail me and I'll fill you in.

Jonah was kind enough to ask my cloaked question (meaning I wrote it on a piece of paper) about whether Pepsi would be back next year on the Apprentice...

Bob Liodice, ANA Chief, is busy addressing the crowd.

In his speech, he outlines 2 critical directives in the new playbook underpinning a new marketing landscape:

1) The consumer is in control

2) Marketers will be held accountable for everthing they do

He stressed that CEO's and CFO's are making the connection between terrific marketing and increasing revenues/profits/shareholder value

In my book I talk about the fact that consumers aren't as dumb as they used to be...put differently, consumers today are smarter than they used to be.

One example is the difference (and perceived credibility) of movie critic reviews versus community (meaning you and me) reviews.

Exacurbating (sp?) this is the downright, borderline criminal misrepresentation of real reviews by studio frauds as misleading marketing propoganda

I'm blogging ANA's TV conference today and looking forward to hearing from:

• David A. Burwick, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer Pepsi
• Julie Roehm Director Marcom - Jeep, Dodge, &Chrysler DaimlerChrysler
• Leslie Moonves Co-President and Co-Chief Operating Officer Viacom Inc. Chairman, President, and CEO CBS Broadcasting Inc.
• Rishad Tobaccowala President, SMG IP Starcom Mediavest Group
• Malcolm Gladwell Author, Blink and The Tipping Point

later...

MSN recently announced the renaming and rebranding of their custom solutions team as the branded entertainment and experiences team.

The move positions MSN on a direct and level playng field with the likes of the big Y. Moreover, it positions the portal as a major player in the sector of the industry which is arguably where the puck is right now...product placement/content integration/branded entertainment et al

(ok, no more innuendo...at least for today)

Martha Stewart's now-famous poncho, adorned by the diva when she left prison, is turning heads.

Lion Brand Yarn - a yarn company - recreated the poncho pattern from various images and photographs and put it on the website. In the first 4 days after it was posted, more than 167,000 patterns were downloaded. It's called the "Coming Home" free poncho.

As reported in Adweek, Sony Electronics - a company/brand brimming with all the potential in the world, but thus far unable to let go of "old marketing" - has informed agencies that "digital technologies are in their infancy and the battle for the digital future is far from over."

I don't know that I would call it a battle (doesn't sound very consumer-friendly), nor would I refer to it as a future battle. It's a reality. It's happening today. But yes, it is just the beginning of a hyper-competitive attempt to woo the consumer and connect with their most precious commodity - their disposable time (not money)

More than 50,000 people watching episode Day 4: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM of 24 (aired January 17), dialled a phone number which appeared on a cell phone screen (it belonged to a member of the crew)

In the episode, a cellphone rings and fans with TiVo or similar DVR device were able to pause the program and see the actual incoming number.

Both crew and stars of the show including Carlos Bernard, Reiko Aylesworth and Mary Lynn Rajskub - took the calls.

Lee and Dan - those crazy suicide-bomber guys that gave the legal-eagles from VW enough headaches to last a lifetime are back in the news (which means that VW are get more impressions - good, bad or ugly)

They've been hired at Quiet Storm as was reported in Brand Republic.

As reported in MarketWatch:

IAC/InterActiveCorp and Ask Jeeves said Monday that they've reached an agreement under which IAC/InterActive would acquire Ask Jeeves for $1.85 billion in stock.

I think Barry is saying something to the effect of, "Google, Yahoo! and MSN, can you hear me now?" In actuality, this goes back to Barry Diller announcing that he was deadly serious about the space and he certainly followed through and came good on his promises...

jaffe Juice is back…with a twist: J^2 is now in blog form (thanks to the help of the very cool team at Gawker, who helped me build this in the hope that people would indeed come)

My focus will hone in on “new marketing”, media and creativity in advertising.

My role is to tell you what’s important and more importantly, why you should care. Every now and then, I’ll post long-form pieces which will typically look like the old jaffe Juice articles and will be designed to invoke your comments.

What’s in it for you? I hope jaffe Juice will be your daily fix of unedited and undiluted commentary, opinion and perspective. I intend to be your quantity (aggregator) and quality (refinery) filters. I also expect you to lend me your fingers and to join the conversation.

What’s in it for me? A bit of sponsorship and advertising revenue down the line will help pay for carpal tunnel physiotherapy, but for now I hope you’ll do your part to spread the word and tell a few (thousand) people about jaffejuice.com. I also welcome your suggestions and feedback which is vital to me and more than appreciated.

Finally, I’ll be introducing a segment called, “Between the lines,” where I’ll publish anonymous postings which are sent to me offline. Through this feature, I will attempt to be a true voice for the market, reflecting things for what they are, as opposed to what they appear to me. Is there a publisher you think is too arrogant? Are there agency individuals who are not toeing the line? I’ll let the world know about them. The only thing off the record in “Between the lines” will be your identity.

Together, we will continue to shape the changing world.

Did you ever see that cultish movie, Johnny Dangeously? If you did, you would understand the meaning of Sumner Beesh - which is probably what is on the lips of many media moguls following the real Sumner Redstone's announcement that he may split up Via and Com.

5 media companies (Disney, News Corp, Viacom, Time Warner and NBC Universal) are matched by more or less the same number of advertising holding companies or more specifically 5 media services agencies. 5 cable companies...5 clients...all consolidating...all the time...

As reported in Adweek, Music meets Influential Trend-setting Influencers converges in the form of RPM, a "niche-marketing" agency which will act as matchmaker between brands and consumers using the power of hip-hop personalities.

It's a branded entertainment to the tune of music and is the word-of-mouth equivalent to the Pepsi Super Bowl commercial with P-Diddy.

Following up from my previous post on the subject, is this ad which adds insult to injury:

The radio age --> the television age --> the digital age ---> the magazine???? Oh I get it, we're devolving....this is like a riddle; what comes next?

a) the Industrial age

b) the Middle ages

c) The stone age

d) The ice age

Weeee - this is fun

ClickZ article by Zachary Rogers on the conundrum of agencies finding good people.

The mid-level missing link appears to be late-arriving fallout from the dot-com bubble's bursting. People were laid off or left the business when its prospects didn't look very bright. A few recruiters have been trying to track down the former interactive pros, but they're coming up empty-handed. Not surprisingly, many went into other lines of work, becoming kindergarten teachers or bakers. Some haven't worked on an interactive campaign in two or three years.

The mug you see is none other than one of the smartest guys in the business, Doug Weaver. I refer to him as the seller's seller and he calls me the Human Brand.

He truly understand the sales-side of the equation and as a former buyer, I tend to learn a lot from him. He publishes a newsletter called "the Drift" and if you don't subscribe, you should....

As reported in Ad Age on March 11:

General Motors Corp., the nation's second-largest advertiser in 2004, has put into review its $3.5 billion national and regional dealer group media-buying account, according to the company

As reported in Business Week on March 15:

Advertising Conglomerate Interpublic Group of Cos. said on Tuesday that it would defend its General Motors account, a day after the company's stock price fell sharply on reports that GM would put its media buying account up for review.

As reported in the Times on March 17

General Motors' stock fell to its lowest level in more than a decade Wednesday after the company said it expected to post a loss of nearly $1 billion for the last six months. The news set off G.M.'s largest single-day share loss since the market collapse of 1987 and further darkened Wall Street assessments of the company, the world's largest automaker.

...but it's better than zero!

As reported by Mr Elliot in NYTimes today, "Pepsi One Goes on a Television-Free, Celebrity-Free Commercial Diet."

This one pretty much sets off every New Marketing button kind of like an EMP would any electrical outlet within an 8 mile radius.

Pepsi is launching their Pepsi One diet drink sans borrowed interest from celebrities (but what will become of Beyonce?) and the 30-second spot.

What? No TV? How could this be true? What possibly could they use in its place?

How about online, events/experiential marketing, non-traditional forms of marketing such as trading cards, various trading cards, music downloads, online long-form movies.

I might just buy a Pepsi One now...

Actually, the topline is more along these lines:

Adults who go online most frequently also watch more shows and read more newspapers than their less wired counterparts, according to a Carat Insight analysis

It really shows that multi-media consumption (some might even go down the integration route) is a function of (or proportional to) some of the basic demographic and psychographic inputs or variables which make up media 101.

Put slightly differently, why not use this hypothesis:

The propensity to consume more media (in hours) is directly related to the number of mediums consumed (over and above a certain minimum threshhold)

There are some subtle tweaks in this assertion i.e. this is less about "old" media and more about "new" media i.e. TiVo, gaming, wireless, Interactive.

There's a thesis waiting to happen...or the next Carat Insight study in the making.

Today's Breaking News from Adweek:

AmEx Taps Pile to Lead $55 Mil. Review

I don't know about you, but if I ever tapped a pile, that would be a painful experience indeed. Hmmm - painful experience, consultants involved in selecting agencies. Coincidence? I think not.

P.S. Who names a company after a hemorrhoid?

Last night's SNL (with David Spade hosting) got my attention pretty strongly with its unbelievable media emphasis. For examples:

1. David Spade's monologue centered around his Capital One appearance (best line was a question from the audience - "The first 150,000 times I didn't get that A-no-ha was A-lo-ha, but the second 150,000 times I got it")
2. Parody of Roomba meets typical feminine hygiene ad with the introduction of the automated Woomba cleaning machine (I'm not going there....)
3. Parody of 2 over the hill singers giving renditions of their best work...all of which are advertising jingles for corporations
4. From the makers of Blind Justice, comes Deaf Judge and Idiot Doctor...a parody on ABC's attempts at 3-peating Lost and Desperate Housewives.

No question Spade was giving his client maximum bang for their buck...the rest of it is just a pretty accurate reflection on the state of the industry.

How's that for an image? :)

I've been quite intrigued by Showtime's Fat Actress tie-in with Yahoo!, where essentially Y! "broadcast" the pilot episode of the show (I don't think it was simultaneous/real time) for the first week after it aired.

Some preliminery Initiative/Comscore numbers came out offering up the following nuggets:

• The Showtime airing of the program on March 7 received a .62 household rating, which translates into 942,000 viewers. 
• Yahoo reached another 16,000 viewers (I'm assuming these are total views i.e. entire show)
• Including people who viewed individual scenes i.e. not the whole show, this number climbs to 197,000.
• Including multiple views of the video, the number of visitors hit nearly 390,000 in the first two days.
• The findings put the Web's portion of total viewership of Fat Actress at 16 percent

The data above is decidedly mixed. To be fair I would summarize this is as follows, "the results of the first test are in and the overall synopsis would be....encouraging...keep on keeping on."

Personally, I don't think the content was that compelling.

I don't think this model works as well for anything other than a premium pay channel e.g. HBO/Showtime etc.

I don't know if consumers watching 30 minutes of uninterrupted content will ever work on the Web (you get a sense of this by the 16,000 versus 181,000 (197 - 16) numbers

...also the multiple views number is a bit of a Red Herring, because I don't know if this is an apples to apples comparison with actual Television (multiple views are somewhat unknown)

So in summary...nice efforts. Let's see what happens when they do it with the Sopranos :)

This one hits the New Marketing Richter scale on multiple levels. I first saw it on the Today Show, but most people will probably find out about it from JibJab or through e-mail.

First of all, it's pretty funny and worth watching in its own right. But really it's pretty profound when you think about it.

For starters, you have the folks over at JibJab who published this as an "exception":

Dear JibJabber,

As you may know, we don't typically publish anyone's work other than our own, but when this gem was brought to our attention we had to share it with you. The folks over at Consumers Union commisioned this incredibly irreverent and biting video on the prescription drug industry. We don't endorse "issues" here at JibJab, but we do endorse comedy and this piece is brimming with it.

Hoping you laugh as hard as we did,
Grevan

Hint: JibJab as a PUBLISHER

Secondly, you've got the uncool Consumer Union who become instantly cool by hiring the folks over at The Austin Lounge Lizards and The Animation Farm (neither of whom have the clip up on their websites btw) to create something that a) is entertaining, b) is engaging, c) is humorous, but d) thru f) is poignant, provocative and presses (3 P's) and I guess g) has made it on to the radars of all and sundry.

iow, interesting issue/advocacy new marketing tactic which will resonate so much more than the 30-second spot versions which try and scare the Bejesus out of us.

Thirdly, let's not forget the message which is really a two-parter:

1) The ridiculousness of the drug industry represented by special interest groups, hawking unsafe products on unsuspecting and drug-dependent Americans who have a lust for quick-fixes and an aversion to growing third nipples (although the 4 hour erections are always a perk)

2) Moreover the way these drugs are coated with artificial sweetner and force-fed into 30-second spots which neither portray reality, nor communicate a true picture of what they do and what they may cause. Consumers aren't as dumb as they used to be - they aren't fooled by the fast talking voice over or small print.

Finally, let's not forget the very communal nature of this - another classic viral play which - with a media cost of zilch - has (or will) received more publicity than any of the brand bullies can do with hundreds of millions of dollars.

We're laughing with one another (Water Cooler) and we're laughing at the drug companies!

Anyway, you can watch the video here. Spread the word :)

  A while ago I blogged the fact Golden Palace - an online casino that had previously done wacky things like tattoo the back of Tonya Harding in Celebrity Boxing etc for publicity had stepped it up a notch.

After noticing a few too many wacky bids on eBay, I realized that this was in fact a very deliberate media strategy i.e. using eBay as a medium to leverage the publicity associated with doing things like bidding for space on foreheads, sponsoring a pregnant belly and now the ultimate...sponsoring a birth. As the press release states (which essentially shows how calculated this was), this is the first sponsored birth which clearly is not newsworthy, but what is, is the desperation caused by an abundance of clutter on the one hand...although in the case of Golden Palace, a rather innovative way of using non-traditional channels with traditional channels aren't available.

Wonder if I can get them to pay for my daughter's Batmitzvah....

At the AAAA's Media Conference in Neworleans (I'm told it's pronounced as one word), I attended a session where all the heads of the various media associations faced off against each other (or was it the consumer?)

Anyhoo, one prediction given (I forget who it was as I was sitting too far back) was a confident two-pronged one about the future of 30-second spot:

1) Ad breaks/length will continue to get more irregular i.e. time between them and their length

2) The quality of creative will improve

This post will concentrate on 1) which I actually believe is going to happen, but I don't think it's smart or right. Fooling the consumer by countering the predictability of serving up ads is like putting a band aid on a gaping wound caused by an axe, shark bite or whatever would cause a limb to not be attached to the body anymore.

Last night on Alias, I used my TiVo to measure the length of time between ad breaks. They were irregular all right. In fact one was only 4 minutes apart from the previous one. 4 minutes of advertising followed by 4 minutes of content followed by another 4 minutes of advertising.

Consumers are smarter than that...that's all I'm sayin'.

As reported in MediaPost, Massive, Inc. will launch the Massive network on March 28.

Ads placed via Massive's network are similar to product placement in movies. The Massive-served ads will appear whenever it makes sense within the context of the game--when a character walks down the street and sees a billboard, or the banners hanging around a sports stadium, for example. Thus far, the ads are only for posters and billboards, but...video and audio ads (will follow)

This is an interesting convergence between Madison, Vine, Valley and San Andreas. It looks like we have a four-way intersection now.

OK, so I'm walking into Grand Central this morning from the Metro North Train...and I gaze up (intentially because I am in media research mode - most consumers are not and therefore would not) at two "out of home" masterpieces.

The one which I will comment on today is for Continential Airlines, with the words, "What wall?" It is announcing the fact that Continental now flies to Berlin.

If I was to have done an informal poll amongst morning commuters, I wonder how many would have found that information helpful; I wonder how many would have in fact been in the market for a flight to Berlin.

I also wonder how relevant it is to this crowd considering the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. I can only suspect the cilent was presented with a series of options and chose the Berlin Wall one over breakthrough (pun not intended) alternatives from WWI and WWII.

Erwin Ephron - the second smartest grumpy man I know - wrote a great piece in his monthly newsletter, Ephron on Media. It was an article about clutter and taking responsibility for it...or the corrolary, how people think that clutter is the "other guy's" problem.

the number of listeners delivered to a radio commercial depends on the holding power of the commercials preceding it.

Not only is clutter a problem from a quantitative perspective, but (as the quote above suggests) it is always very much a qualitative one.

So what's to do about this? Who is going to take responsibility for carpetbombing the hell out of us (consumers) with abusive frequency, crap creative and the like? Anyone...anyone...Beuhler...Beuhler...

Your silence is very telling.