Supporting our claim that slashing your start-up's advertising budget is a mistake, web brokerage firm E-Trade said today that boosting their marketing saved their bottom line. They tell Silicon Alley Insider that when their stock plummeted more than 78% and analysts started whispering "bankruptcy," they took action - and started advertising more.

While they axed ads on "low-performing website," they also started spending more on sites where their ads performed well. The result is that business has rebounded dramatically. They're now signing up more than 1,000 new accounts each day, although they're still waiting for their stock price to catch up. Company CMO Nick Utton says that their ad campaign—which revolves around a talking baby—was responsible for their recovery:

"When a crisis hits, being out of sight is the same thing as being out of mind. You need to spend."

Now for that talking baby: