Never mind the blank TV -- someone unplugged the entire ad business! When it comes to spending -- whether the medium is television, print, or the Internet -- the boom times are over. Clients wonder if agencies understand their problems, and consumers wonder why they should pay attention to what Madison Avenue produces. Six advertising insiders take the industry to account.

John Dooner
Job: Chairman and CEO
Org: The Interpublic Group of Companies
Place: New York, New York

Three words come up in this industry: brand, global, and integration. Building a relationship between a brand and the consumer requires more and different touch points. Advertising is not less important; it's just that other communications tools are becoming more important. That said, advertising will probably remain the primary tool in the future.

Integration is the single biggest challenge facing the industry. We need to find ways to collaborate so that people are selfless in their desire to solve brand problems rather than their own individual sector needs. The challenge is at the operating level, not the holding company -- which is just a bunch of lawyers and bean counters. Several questions frame that challenge: Do you have the capabilities at the highest level for other kinds of marketing communications tools? Do you have a way to evaluate their relative importance? Do you have a way to integrate them to create the optimal mix? Then there is the other side of the equation: Are clients organized so that they can receive an integrated marketing solution?

This is an exciting time -- a time of rigorous experimentation. The only way we're going to lose our relevance is if we stop learning and start thinking, Hey, the only way to do it is the way we always did it.

John Dooner (jdooner@interpublic.com) is the chairman and CEO of the world's largest advertising conglomerate. Dooner, who has held the title for about one year, completely reorganized the holding company to better deliver integrated communications beyond traditional advertising. Prior to joining the executive ranks of Interpublic, he was chairman and CEO of one of its global ad networks, McCann-Erickson WorldGroup.

CJ Fraleigh
Job: Executive director, advertising and corporate marketing
Org: General Motors
Place: Detroit, Michigan

Media dollars may be down in general, but the role of advertising is just as critical as ever. The world continues to get more competitive and more cluttered. To succeed in that kind of Darwinian environment, companies constantly have to find new ways to stand above the crowd and connect with the consumer. For that reason, we haven't made any significant cutbacks in media spending.

In fact, we recently launched a brand-new Cadillac campaign. Traditionally, Cadillac has not been the coolest or the most relevant brand to people in their twenties, thirties, and forties. But we have just spent billions of dollars producing some of the most innovative vehicles in the world, so now is the time to come out with an entirely new ad campaign. More than anything else, we need advertising to make an emotional connection with consumers. Emotion grabs attention -- and ultimately sells products.