If there's one thing we love about this biz, it's the quotes our fellow journos use when making their points. It's not enough to have a compelling argument, you see; one must also have a number of remarks from seasoned professionals, witnesses et al in order for his story to be taken seriously.

"The fact that so many stories these days tend to take comments out of context is appalling," I said right now. "But that's communication for you, eh?"

Good point, me. We rounded up a few quotes from today's advertising news stories, and thought we'd see how they do when taken completely out of context. Here goes!

"'The most surprising thing to us is how fast the digital marketplace has come to a standstill in the fourth quarter,' said Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal, during the conference.'" — link

"'The year ahead will be difficult in many respects, but also very exciting,' said Placecast CEO Alistair Goodman. 'We expect marketers who need to do more with less will put pressure on agencies, media providers, publishers and measurement firms to deliver more value. At the same time, tough market conditions always produce new ways of solving old problems. We see big opportunities for advertisers to find new ways to drive better performance for their campaigns.'" — link

"Advertisers distract users; users ignore advertisers; advertisers distract better; users ignore better." — Seth Goldstein of SocialMedia Networks — link

"'The alleged misrepresentation here — that 'light' and 'low-tar' cigarettes are not as healthy as advertised — is actionable only because of the effect that smoking light and low-tar cigarettes had on respondents' health,' Thomas said." — link

Well that wasn't so bad. Consider this "news of the day," masked by the quotes that make the stories tenable. Quotes make not the story, y'all — tis truth that tells it. Write that down.

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