The Sunday morning altruism beat.

I watch Face the Nation, Meet the Press, This Week, and CBS's venerable Sunday Morning almost every week. It's a pretty rich mix, with some of television's best people providing it.

It's also the place where the commercials get all high-minded. Last Sunday I was reminded that whatever I might have thought, Microsoft is actually motivated...excuse me, inspired to create software that helps me achieve my potential. I thought they just wanted to be my only choice for potential-enhancing software.

I also learned, with appropriate heart-tugging music, that Conoco-Phillips, by investing in Russian oil and gas reserves, is ensuring our energy supply. Phew! I was starting to get really worried about oil and gas prices. Sure glad that problem's solved.

And Exxon-Mobil is working on all sorts of unspecified "advanced fuels." Good. I sure hope they're keeping an eye on those tanker ships these days. Last time I heard, they'd convinced the government to allow more of the monsters into Puget Sound.

It's also good to know that GE is all about imagination at work. I hear they've finally imagined themselves coughing up the money to clean their PCBs out of the Hudson.

Boeing, too. Doing the impossible in aerospace and satellites. They're the ones who hired the folks away from the Pentagon who approved their air-tanker deal, right? And had the clean-up-the-place CEO who was sweet on one of his female execs? "Forever new frontiers."

And Tyco. Did you know they don't make just important products, but vital ones? Isn't that where Dennis Kozlowski used to work?

We used to call the ads that all run on Sunday morning news-talk shows "institutional advertising." To remind the opinion makers of the high purposes and values of these corporate giants. Do you suppose this advertising still works?