By Tess Lynch, Grantland blogger, Brown-alum, and Brokaw-wannabe?

“2012 will be the beginning of a new era of advertising. Besides the Orkin and Dos Equis “Most Interesting” men, the past few years in commercials have been a mostly plain-yogurt flavored bowl of offerings peppered with occasionally offensive gender stereotyping and the same five white guys who live in an apartment and keep getting intruded on by spokespeople summoned by sound effects. No longer!

We should prepare to be offended and excited, and then further excited by how offended we are, and then even more offended by how excited we were to be offended in the first place (this will be a completely modern emotion; side effects will include an immediate sensation of sinus decongestion).

The advertising arena will become more competitive (so I won’t have to spend an hour trying to find a screen-grab of the L’Oréal makeup advertisement misstep, “Now up to ten years disappear in a single stroke” — no thanks, I’ll keep the ten years and spend them in South Beach — other advertisers will have preserved it forever to degrade whatever agency was responsible), more artful, more interesting. Somewhere, a young Don Draper is out-Drapering the master. His time is nigh.”

Here’s to helping Tess’s 2012 prediction come true. Here’s to all you new Don Drapers out there who will create bigger, bolder ideas this year, and all you clients out there who will have the courage to pursue them.

Happy New Year, everybody!

-Your friends at Sterling, Cooper, Brokaw, Pryce