Another crack in the walls of Chateau Advertising?

SEARS CUTS Y&R, OGILVY & MATHER AGENCY FEES

Holy crap. Don't even know where to get started here.

1. Does this mean that the dog has finally started to wag the tail? How cool would that be if Sears just said, "Look, you're not doing squat for us. We're paying you less. Stop whining. We hate when you whine Here's a tissue."

2. "Last year Sears spend about $640 million on advertising split between Y&R and Ogilvy." If you spend $640MM wouldn't you expect some real results? Like sales increases? Or something?

3. Combined, the newly formed Sears/Kmart spent $815MM on advertising last year. I guess you really gotta spend money to lose money in this world.

4. Viewed that Walmart and Target are kicking their ass, wouldn't it maybe make sense to take some of that billion dollars and invest it in their stores, their products and their people? Maybe that's what Eddie Lampert is doing. I hope sure hope so.

UPDATE: Another thought. Sears has fantastic appliances and tools. Consumer Reports rates Kenmore as the best in many categories. Perhaps they should focus on those businesses instead of "the softer side," expanding the product mix to include more environmentally efficient models, colors, etc. I'm not a businessman, nor do I have an MBA, but it seems to make sense to me.