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Great.  We haven't heard and seen enough ads to last us a lifetime.  Now a new study has found the key themes that cut through the clutter and make us sit up and take notice -- to create more ads. Researchers from North Carolina State University have analyzed 50 years’ worth of hit songs to identify key themes that marketing professionals can use to craft advertisements that will resonate with audiences, according to newswise.com. “People are exposed to a barrage of advertisements and they often respond by tuning out those advertisements. We wanted to see what we could learn from hit songs to help advertisers break through all that clutter,” says Dr. David Henard, a professor of marketing at NC State and lead author of a paper describing the research at newswise.com. “We also wanted to see if there were specific themes that could help companies engage with consumers in a positive way via social media." Researchers found that there's a" limited range of widel...

I hate Facebook. Not the site itself but all the fun I’m missing. Last year I was devastated to read about a neighborhood party we weren’t invited to, all the pictures of people dancing and drinking, and having a really good time. Or the vacation another friend took when I thought she was right here in Stamford , struggling through the snow like the rest of us. Or the picture showing another friend ramming into her husband in bumper cars.  It reminds me of all the parties with the cool kids I wasn’t invited to in high school. I was quiet and mousy in those days, and didn’t smoke or drink or do anything that was even remotely cool. (It’s only now, bumping into old friends, that I’m finding out some thought I was, well, attractive.) But that’s another column.  I read once that people put on Facebook what they want others to think is happening in their lives.  The gourmet meals they prepare. The half-marathons they run in record time (sorry, Paul Ryan)....