On the Champs-Élysées last week, the Publicis Groupe, the advertising heavyweight, opened Denuo (Latin for "anew"), with about 15 marketing futurists to spot new media and marketing technologies on behalf of clients, investors and, not least, Publicis itself.

Leading the futurists is Rishad Tobaccowala, a top executive in the media-buying division of Publicis who has led several of its digital advertising ventures and who will be based in Chicago. Among Denuo's other futurists are specialists on advertising through mobile phones and video games, as well as through viral marketing — spreading buzz by word of mouth and the Internet.

"Human beings can never be captured in an algorithm, and Google only understands algorithms," he said.

Deep inside the bowels of Publicis headquarters, a conversation is overheard:

Det. Thorn: It's people. MemeStreams is made out of people. They're making commercials out of people. Next thing they'll be breeding us like sitcoms for prime time. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!

Hatcher: I promise, Tiger. I promise. I'll tell the exchange.

Det. Thorn: You tell everybody. Listen to me, Hatcher. You've gotta tell them! MemeStreams is people! We've gotta stop them somehow!

I think this may be the best slogan yet.