The billboard is listening.

"In an advertising ploy right out of Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report," electronic billboards in the Bay Area and Sacramento are being equipped to profile commuters as they whiz by -- and then instantly personalize freeway ads based on the wealth and habits of those drivers."

These billboards key into the radio station a driver is listening to and then tailor the ads to the suggested demographic.

Another article about ad companies attempts to make annoying ads more annoying... pop-up ads are, apparently, too easy to ignore:

"A relatively new feature may make it harder for people to avoid these windows. Using a technique called the "kick through," advertisers can direct a person to another Web site if they simply move their cursor across the pop-up ad--no clicking is necessary."

The Bailey Lauerman Research department has kindly put together a spirit survey to graph out if you are a Santa or a Scrooge.

Musician, composer and mutant trumpet inventor Ben Neill has upped the ante in the commercial music biz with a true first. A while back, Volkswagen compiled a various artists CD of tunes from its commercials to appease the VW masses, but Ben has taken it a big step further - He just released an original full length album of expanded versions of ditties he originally wrote soley for Volkswagen ads.

"There is no difference between something that is considered art and something that is a commercial," he says. "My album is a statement of that." - Full story at the Christian Science Monitor

Beep beep indeed. Herbie would be proud.