Ford Motor Company has actually named its initiative to halt the hemorrhaging of its market share, taking a que from Alice Walker and naming it “The Way Forward”. Cold comfort to the 30,000 workers who will be left behind.

Rumor has it that Ford was considering holding meetings to discuss the possibility of manufacturing products that people actually want to buy, and even resurrecting their old chestnut, “Quality is job one”, but all of the meeting rooms were booked.

Still, it could happen. The automotive branding world has been full of resurrections in the past four years. Buick’s dead man designer Harely Earl was dug up back in late 2002, while in the same month Chevrolet turned to Jesus for inspiration, and an odd coalition of lefties and righties launched “What would Jesus Drive?”. Just last November Audi began playing God, with talk of “Inteligent Design”.

Clearly, Ford’s “The Way Forward” has missed the Ark.

Except for this, this and this.

Here’s the best investing advice you will ever receive, and it’s so simple an advertising executive could have an assistant do it for them. Just follow our name announcements and client acquisition news. When you spot a public company hiring Igor, short that stock! Why? It’s indicative of systemically flawed judgment.

In the past 12 months this would include MTV (Viacom), Hasbro, Dupont, Boston Beer, MGM, Palm, Gap, Hitachi, etc. Full list here.

A little Paul Anka, just to get your week off on a sour note. This was used as Kodak’s song, if you remember. If only we could forget. We thought we had, until Unlawyer was callous enough to dig it up:

Good morning, yesterday
You wake up and time has slipped away
And suddenly it’s hard to find
The memories you left behind
Remember, do you remember?

The laughter and the tears
The shadows of misty yesteryears
The good times and the bad you’ve seen
And all the others in between
Remember, do you remember
The times of your life? (Do you remember?)

Reach out for the joy and the sorrow
Put them away in your mind
The mem’ries are times that you borrow
To spend when you get to tomorrow

Here comes the saddest part (Comes the saddest part)
The seasons are passing one by one
So gather moments while you may
Collect the dreams you dream today
Remember, will you remember
The times of your life?

Gather moments while you may
Collect the dreams you dream today
Remember, will you remember
The times of your life?

Of your life
Of your life
Do you remember, baby
Do you remember the times of your life?

Do you remember, baby
Do you remember the times of your life?