You Like The Proud Structures, Yes?

We were going to title this post something like "We Need More Erections", but felt that being so smutty before even starting the post might upset our younger readers. We had a chance to catch NY1 this morning for a decent stretch. Certainly more than enoough time to work out that Kristen Shaughnessy is an utterly underwhelming replacement for Pat "St Pat" Kiernan. Although one weekend we were confronted with the trully horrible sight of Roger Clark in suit and pancake warming the anchor's chair. He lacked the warm authority of life's anchors - or "still looks kinda goofy" as cutesome put it. If he was a spaceship in an Ian M. Banks novel he''d be called Very Little Gravitas Indeed.

When your anchor's boring, and when you've stopped caring about Al Sharpton's latest flounce, you tend to focus more on the adverts than normal. Actually, you know that we seccrtly prefer the adverts, but it's our way of stresssing how rounded we are.

The latest attack-counter-attack ad has been on the air for a while, and it's decided to move a fair way outside of the standard construction-boosting ads. You might recall the ads from a while back by Save The Plaza, which used the children as well as a fairly handsome doorman to make the case that the Plaza hotel, where Croc Dundee stayed, should not be converted into condos. The campaign had a fair amount of backing from hotel workers' unions and ladies with very tight faces who were given to take tea there.

The developers, operating as Really Save the Plaza (clever, damn, clever!) swung into action fairly quickly, producing a reasonably gentle ad that says that the Plaza is losing a bunch of money and that all they want to do is improve it. As an opening salvo we thought it lacked punch, and it avoided any cool cancer-man voices that dredge up sordid statements about the opposition. But, in an act of sheer genius, the producers decided that all that attack-ad fripppery was not required.

No, what they decided they would use is a pretty and, er, statuesque lady to serve as their spokesmodel. And then they dress her in a really tight sweater. In truth, the rest of the advert had the same features as other construction adverts, in terms of some really futuristic artist's impressions, and a mention of lots of jobs. But when the numbers are faded you're still left with the impression of this smiling brunette telling you not to worry, because everything's fine.

Which indeed it apparently is. According to Save The Plaza, the city reached a deal with the developers to retain a fair amount of the old hotel, and this seems to have served most people's honor. We can only assume that NY1's advertising manager wouldn't give the developer their check back. Or that the Lure of the Sweater is too great. Note to the guys at the Jets trying to build their stupid stadium on the West Side - hire the sweater lady now.