A reader asks: I saw a painting that I really like and the gallery owner told me that the artist had an Absolut ad. Not that I doubt the salesperson (grin) but how can I check? The artist is Ivan Jenson. Can you help?

We can absolutely help!

There are several easy ways to do this. First, if you remember, the Absolut ads all say ‘Absolut something’ so I’d search in Google for “Absolut Jenson” and you’ll see that the first several results clearly confirm that the gallery was correct. In fact, the first result shows a neat listing of all the ads.

But you know us. Even though Google is so easy and so great, we need to tell you another way. And you’ll be glad we did, because this is a really groovy resource. (Thanks to Garret for the pointer!) There’s this great database of advertising called Ads of the World. You can browse by brand, agency, keyword, category, country. It’s great. No, it’s not complete. Not even close. But there are some really terrific ads here. If you choose Absolut, you’ll be bummed to see that the Jenson is not there, however. But we bet that you’ll get lost in the exploration and have a really good time anyway.

And since we’re throwing out other ways of approaching this, we went to Ask.com and searched for absolut ads and found Absolutads.com which is where we easily found this ad.

We say buy the painting!

A loyal reader asks…For a presentation I’m doing, I need to know the correlation between the make and model of the car one drives, and the kind of radio stations one listens to. For example, do 50 percent of the drivers of Dodge Rams tune into country stations?

There was a great study done by Scarborough Research in combination with the Radio Advertising Bureau that looks at domestic and foreign vehicle ownership. Here is a brief summary of some interesting points.

Domestic Vehicles

Foreign Vehicles

If you’re so inclined, you can read the whole report here.

Find interesting blogs at BlogCatalog

We’re listed – so it must be great! Seriously, it’s a nice way to drill down by category to find blogs. We like it and think you will too.

A reader asks: What’s the average time spent on listening to radio per day among people 25-34? Has it decreased over the past 5 years?

Yes, it has. But not as dramatically as you might think. Check this out:

Time spent listening overall has decreased by 3 hours and 15 minutes per week in the past 10 years. That is a lot. But the past 5 years have slowed, with a loss of just over an hour. So the biggest changes in total listening was from 1997 through 2002.

In looking at the demographic of most interest to our reader (thanks for sending such a great question, by the way!), we’ve compiled the data from years of Arbitron reports. Note that 2002 is missing. The trends look a lot like the above chart – steady decreases. Notice also, that men consistently listen more than women. (click on the chart and it gets nice & big!)

A loyal reader asks: I have a client in the tennis business. They want me to find national publications with tennis subject matter on their editorial calendars. I’ve done some Google searching, but I feel like I’m drowning in irrelevant results. HELP ME!

Score 1 for us. We have a great idea.

Check out MRI+, a free database of magazine planning information run by Mediamark Research.

MRI+ is a free digital library of competitive data that serves as an electronic information link between planners and the publishers of major consumer and business publications.

MRI+ consolidates the databases planners use to evaluate magazines at one site:

• Top-line data from the Survey of the American Consumer™
• ABC Circulation Reports
• Advertising Expenditures
• Editorial profiles and calendars
• Subscriber Studies
• Links to Publisher sites

MRI+ is free to registered users.

So here’s what you do.

1. Log in.
2. Go to New Search.
3. Select Consumer Publications in part 1.
4. Select Profile and Editorial Calendars in part 2.
5. Select contains and type ‘tennis’ in the keyword box.
6. Click on search.

And there you have it. A list of publications with tennis on the edcal or in the publication profile along with circulation, and other information.

Of course, you still need someone to apply some judgment, but it’s a great start.