As a rule I'm a 'never-before-noon' man. But one morning recently there it was, on top of the spread of magazines laid out for me on my desk. Cover story of The Atlantic Monthly, the magazine founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson and some cronies over a few drinks at the Parker House Hotel in Boston in 1857. Four words. "The End Of Men."

You hear the word "narrative" a lot these days. That's because we're looking for personal relationships--dialogue, shared experience, a bedtime story.

In uncertain times like these, let's get back to basics, shall we? Graham Button investigates 10 questions we all should be asking ourselves.

Graham Button takes a break from his Microsoft U studies at a rented media pod on the beach in Zanzibar to file a post ten years from now.

When a company makes a brand promise in a tagline, it's committing to a relationship. Here are ten taglines in search of new American mates willing to help take back the 21st century.

The iconic machine gun turns 60 this year, and remains one of the most effective tools ever designed. Graham Button heads to his local gun show to find out why something that kills people is so revered.

New web ventures need income. But if you’re going to be 2.0, then you can’t be the advertisers’ bitch. Everyone’s so very tired of that uninvited guest, the corporation.

My son plays some pretty obscure online games. You have to leave the beaten track to find them. About six months ago he was playing one in my dungeon office at home, where I was using hypnosis to coax ideas out of a blank piece of paper. We had this conversation.

HIM: Did you do this ad for (Respectable Upscale Client)? With the blind chameleon?

ME: Yup. We did that.

HIM: Oh.

(Twenty minute pause.)

ME: Why do you ask?

To keep consumers coming back, companies should consider getting in touch with their feelings.