Well, it's that time of year again. Everyone is hoping next year will be as crazy and eventful as this one. Before we get to the predicitons, let's quickly go over some of the highlights of this year... Hated arch-rivals Digitas and Modem Media merged. Now instead of two smallish indy agencies proudly endeavoring on crafting slam-dunk viral web work (but in the end, agreeing wholeheartedly to the me-too creative drafting off the TV and print campaigns) now we have... well, they're still two agencies, but one gets the revenue. We also saw two really groundbreaking commercials throw us all for a loop: Carl's Jr. featuring Paris Hilton, and the Burger King commercials featuring--i know it's crazy--the Burger King in a Burger King mask. Truly paradigm shifting. To just have the sheer guts to put a hot girl in nearly no clothing eating a hamburger, or a fictional burger icon into real life--but in a plastic mask--really sent us all back to our drawing boards in agency-land. We also saw the emergence of Google as a public company and watched as Steve Ballmer at Microsoft threw his usual tantrums about yet another sector slipping away from the Redmond company, despite billions spent on the revamped MSN Search. Balding billionaires complaining about not making MORE money is truly shitty spin control--heads up Waggener Edstrom and Edelman, your PR dollars can probably afford some new handlers for the mercurial Microsoft figurehead.

Finally, on to next year! We can only hope the coming year will be as riveting. here are some predictions that I think we'll find in the coming year that may affect all of us.

• Nike and Microsoft will merge into a company called Nikerosoft. It will annex Starbucks as the onsite coffee service, and will be the richest company on the planet. They will offer the Bush administration a money+bling-bling deal whereby the government receives an undisclosed amount of cash and stock, and the Bush family receive running shoes, software and "Air Jordan" activewear in exchange for turning Oregon and Washington into a separate country called Gatesylvania. Wieden and Kennedy receive only the outdoor and radio portion of the Nikerosoft account based on their poor track record with technology brands.

• Merck will put out a massive RFP to find an agency to hype their new Avian Flu Vaccine. The account will go to Crispin, Porter Bogusky. TV commercials will feature a guy just standing there in a chicken mask, and no narration or text payoff, or drive to web, or call to action. Though the drug is recalled, the ad will go on to sweep the Addy's that year. The chicken mask becomes a hit TV show called "Chicken Mask" and will feature a guy in a chicken mask who stands around doing nothing, coining a new kind of "Hyper-existential reality TV" by scholars and pundits alike.

• Adweek and Mad Magazine will merge into a new comedy-ad biz news magazine called MADweek.

• The first television series that will be feature ONLY product placement of ONLY a single product will be called "It's a Nikerosoft Thang" where everyone on the show uses only Nikerosoft products and come up with potential catch-phrases like "you are SO like un-Nikerosoft!" and "Don't have a Nikerosoft, dude!"

• A video game will finally appear on cel phones that will not suck.

• Breast implants will be replaced by frontal lobotomies as the outpatient surgery of choice by the truly in-crowd. Tell-tale scars revealing frontal lobotomies are featured in pictorials in Vogue Paris.