In the span of about 10 hours this past weekend, both of my favorite teams lost games that I thought they were in. Well maybe could have been in. On second thought were kind of in. Being totally honest, they were never in. I listened to both coaches (for purposes of this discussion, let’s call them the “Heads of Marketing”) post-game press conferences and heard the usual reasons. We didn’t tackle very well. Costly penalties. Turnovers killed us. Too many third and outs. Poor base running. Left too many runners stranded. Swung at too many bad pitches.

I’m a baseball fan. I am an advertising person. And, we are in the midst of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals.

With that in mind, here is my take on the 7th Inning Stretch; specifically the practice of showing high profile personalities in the stands.

It's like watching (television) or reading (digital platforms) the national morning news. "They're wrong." "We're right." "Spend more." "Spend less." Much like our increasingly dysfunctional federal government, experts on both sides of the digital vs. traditional media debate continue to cast aspersions and dire warnings that the end is near... if you don't see it/spend it their way.

First of all let me say that if you ever are offered the chance to be Santa – take it. Not playing Santa for a group of family members who already know that it is crazy Uncle Bob behind the beard – but really being Santa for a group of kids who still believe.