A License to Thrill: Harold Burson in his mid 80s is still as spry and engaged as ever, uses his opening address to talk about some of the challenges facing the industry. He has interesting things to say about the lack of any institutionalized body of knowledge and therefore of any sense of history, all of which I agree with, but his speech is likely to be remembered for his endorsement of licensing. (He didn't make an explicit call, but his discussion of the benefits and his call for the industry to look into it made it fairly clear where he stood.)

I've always opposed licensing, and had several interesting -- and occasionally heated -- chats with Ed Bernays on the subject. But Harold always opposed it to, and he's rethought his position, and that's enough to convince me it's worth thinking and talking about. Which I will do at more length in this weekend's newsletter.