P+P: What do you think is the biggest challenge the industry faces today?
BL: One of the challenges, in my opinion, is getting this medium accepted as a genuine advertising medium. The whole industry got cut off at the knees a few years ago when the pharmaceutical industry basically banned specialty advertising that was normally sold to pharmaceutical companies. Well, that was tens of millions of dollars' worth of business throughout the country, and it hurt very badly. ... We didn't do much in that area, but it was enough that we certainly felt it. I don't know if it'll ever come back again, but the challenge is certainly there to make it ripe again and make it something that people feel is an important medium. When you compare TV advertising today to specialty advertising, I always say that our advertising medium is the only one for which people say "thank you." Nobody ever thanked anybody for a TV commercial. Nobody ever thanked anybody for a classified ad or an ad in the Yellow Pages, but give them a little pen or a little pencil or a stress ball or calculator—everybody who gets it says "thank you."
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