Columnist wants smarter mascots , how hard was it to think up a talking oven mitt? Did hamburger helpers hand get involved? Whats with these silly talking mascots anyway? Read Michael S. Miller rant against Arby's oven mitt and the lack of creativity on Madison avenue. He suggests advertisers just don't care anymore, and since the client actually bought if not ordered that lame-ass mitten directly, he's got a point.

Today in the Guardian Stefano Hatfield rants about american advertising, opting to complain about the lame celebrity endorsements latey.

Meanwhile over in Illinois, McDonald's is still lumbering forward with its new "I'm lovin' it line", which, as I may have said before, sounds as if it was devised by an East European or Scandinavian, and then translated into pigeon English, because that is almost what happened - it came from a German ad agency.

Now, if the line isn't bad enough on its own, McDonald's has signed up Justin "snake-hips" Timberlake in a $1m sponsorship deal that will also include Timberlake's Justified tour of Europe in the autumn.