Sun Times advertising columnist, Lewis Lazare, has a dry wit and a sharp bite. He doesn’t mind ripping up ad campaigns, often from the best agencies in the business, into little tiny bits. He grades the work. C. D. B-.

He pontificates on the dangers of advertainment’s emergence in a recent piece: “Madison & Vine (McGraw-Hill, 202 pgs., $21.95) is a disturbing little book about a trend that should infuriate anyone who still cares about the future of both entertainment (and by extension, the arts) and advertising.”

I can’t say I share his assessment here, but I do like Lazare’s voice and the topics he covers. One thing I do agree with from his piece: “The fact of the matter is that in recent years the public has become increasingly fed up with traditional advertising because it has grown excessively intrusive. What’s more, the vast majority of the work simply isn’t sufficiently creative to command the public’s attention.”