Newsweek is hoping to cash in on the “Mad Men” phenomenon by printing an all-retro issue this March in honor of the season premiere of the hit TV show. They’re not only planning to lay out the magazine in a 60s-era style, but they’re also hoping that advertisers jump on the bandwagon with their on retro ads.

We’re not sure if such a stunt is more a nod to the popularity of the show or a desperate attempt to sell more magazines in a day and age when news-based print is falling by the wayside. There’s an irony in the fact that they want to use a backward-looking layout, because it only reminds people of how obsolete their medium truly is. News magazines are more than passe, they’re pretty much going the way of the dinosaur when news commentary is simply a click away, either on the 24 hour TV news cycle or the Internet.

It will be interesting to see if a one-time fun campaign like this will resurrect drooping ad sales for the magazine, or if it will only provide a short-term boost. It will also be interesting to see the ads, we must admit, as we’re curious to see how modern advertisers would do their take on throwback ads.

After years of short, sometimes goofy commercials for the Super Bowl, this year’s big game could see longer form spots that have actual narratives. According to AdAge, NBC is expecting more spots that last more than the average 30 seconds. Apparently the thinking is that people are tired of the short and quirky spots that make no sense, and they’re looking for something with a little more substance.

Seeing as how a large part of the Super Bowl mystique surrounds the ads, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Of course, this all harkens back to Apple’s “1984″ ad, the standard that all other Super Bowl ads are measured against. Conventional wisdom tells us it will be a challenge to make minute-long “storytelling” commercials keep viewer interest in a day and age where attention spans have dwindled down to almost nothing.

Does the football-viewing public really need a 60 second Volkswagen spot, or a 45 second ad about PepsiMax, the soft-drink manufacturer’s latest foray into the diet soda market? Maybe, maybe not, but big money is being spent in the hopes of another classic commercial breaking through the clutter.

In the modern age of digital, the main question on advertisers minds is – where should ad dollars go? Obviously there needs to be a mix of traditional advertising and online, but for many business owners, it is hard to know exactly how it should be divided.

Marc Brownstein at AdAge is alarmed that so much money is being pulled from traditional media and shifted into the digital world without rhyme or reason. He’s afraid that brand image will be hurt by this trend. Just because the world is shifting online, it does not mean that everybody is going to get your message there. People still watch TV, read magazines, see billboards, and get snail mail. Those venues may be dying, but they’re not dead yet.

It’s important for your business to thoroughly examine all the options, and many of those options will depend on your target audience. Concentrate your dollars where your audience is – while that’s a simple sentiment, it’s not always easy to determine. At M3, we can help you break down your budget to make it as effective as possible. Don’t waste your money in places that are not doing you any good, and don’t spend all your money online just because everyone else is. Make your ad dollars work for you.

This is a clever way to cash in on the Smartphone craze, and it’s just in time for the holidays. A company called Agloves has developed a special glove that can be used on phone touchscreens, the benefit being that you can use your phone in the cold winter months without taking your gloves off. It’s a simple concept, but there’s apparently some weird science behind it.

According to the Agloves website, they have put silver into the fabric in order to transmit the body’s natural “bioelectricity” to the touchscreen. Yeah. OK, whatever you say. That’s probably more than we need to know – we just want to know if they work. Even though the gloves are lined with this hi-tech bioelectric-transmitting silver, they are still reasonably priced under $25 a pair, which is worth taking a chance if you are outside a lot in the winter and you need to send out texts in the snowstorm.

Beyond that, it’s great marketing. Smartphones are becoming ubiquitous, and now is a good time to jump on the bandwagon. Giving people a practical product that can tie-in to the smartphone craze is super smart and right on time.