Are reports of traditional advertising's death exaggerated?

The Wharton School and the Advertising Research Foundation are releasing 21 papers later this month concerning advertising usage and effectiveness.  The studies cover a variety of topics, from DVR's effect on TV advertising to the impact of web ads.

The early summaries of the data seem to say that many traditional outlets like TV and print are not losing effectiveness in the way recent reporting would lead you to believe.  

However I'm going to remain a little skeptical until I can read some additional information.  The DVR findings seem to based on one study done in South Africa.  The overall findings on overall TV advertising effectiveness seemed to be mixed depending on the size of the advertising.

I do agree wholeheartedly with one of the overviews.  They found that word of mouth marketing often starts with, and can still be driven by, paid media.  Beyond that I'm looking forward to reading the reports.

Here's AdAge's story about the research.  And here's the ARF's Site to order a copy of the reports.  You'll have to do the free sign up with the ARF before you can order.