This Economist presentation is so well designed and so persuasive on the importance of continuing to advertise through tough economic straits that I almost bought its conclusion: buy print. They get to this conclusion with a massive elision/assumption: that you can't build brands online. The example is search. Sure it's tough to build a brand with Google Adwords haiku but that does not rule out the possibility of 1) reinforcing brand messages by simply showing up where your audience is looking, and 2) using other online vehicles to create the kinds of engrossing experiences that are what branding is all about.
Not that you shouldn't buy print of course. Just that you shouldn't overlook the opportunity to build brands through new vehicles that may well burst out of this recession with the same exit velocity that search did from the dot-bomb.
