Adding some actual potency to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and president Sue Decker's pitch to Madison Avenue this morning: Jon Hamm, star of AMC's weekly ode to the world of 1960's ad guys, Mad Men. Yang and Decker were likely hoping Hamm's shine would rub off on them, just by having him in the room this morning to deliver lines like "what my friend Jerry Yang is about to share with you will rock the advertising world in the same way that radio and television did way back when."Likening APT (née AMP, née Project Apex, before its name was "awesomeized"), Yahoo's too-little-too-late ad platform, to the scotch-soaked, cigarette hazy halcyon days that Hamm's presence would evoke can only remind those potential ad buyers of how the business really isn't anymore. Like Yahoo's golden era, it, too, has passed, no matter how many smoke rings management attempts to wreath their current missteps in. As Don Draper said in his most famous pitch, clipped above: "Nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound."

Despite losing its lead engineer and complaints that it's been underfunded, Yahoo's dashboard for brand advertising buyers — first called Apex, then AMP and now goes nameless — is ready to roll out this September, the New York Post reports. The story's source is Yahoo exec Mike Walrath, who will move to San Francisco around the time AMP launches this fall. "We understand there is a fair amount of skepticism outside of the company," Walrath told the Post. "Inside of the company, the reason the confidence level is so high is we're not just building a piece of software to be innovative. We are potentially the biggest customer of this software." Nothing personal, but we'll believe it when we see it, Mike.

Former Yahoo engineering director Adam Hyder, who left the company last month, will join job-listings startup Jobvite. At Yahoo, Hyder was best known for leading the Hotjobs engineering team "and is credited for turning around that division," a source tells us. After that feat, Yahoo put Hyder in charge of the application group for the AMP! platform, a dashboard for brand advertisers that's supposed to save Yahoo this fall — if it can find a new name. Our Hyder-friendly source claims he's "bullish" on AMP. That's the politic thing for Hyder to say, of course, but actions speak louder than words. If he's so bullish, why would he leave AMP, unfinished, to a struggling, understaffed team?

From the tips line:

Yahoo's online-advertising platform, codenamed Project Apex and now known as AMP, needs more manpower. Now a tipster tells us that management has raised the hiring bonus for new engineers on the project to $6,000. But the project's budget still needs more cash for hardware:

A tipster reminds us that Yahoo SVP Michael Walrath only told the WSJ he was "very confident" Yahoo will be able to deliver it's advertising management platform (AMP) by the third quarter. There's a difference between "Very confident," and "able to deliver," our tipster notes. The difference is cash and manpower. "There is a shortage of both," says our source. "Some teams get what they need and others do not. This does not make for smooth and predictable schedules.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang today promised the world 500 to 700 engineers will complete Yahoo's brand advertising platform by the third quarter. The announcement was Yahoo's second public response today to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer threat to lower Microsoft's bid for Yahoo over the weekend. According to the clip above, the platform — once called Project Apex, now dubbed AMP — is supposed to provide the technology for publishers to sell their own display, search, mobile and video ads through a Yahoo marketplace. Problem is Apex/AMP is not near completion, commenters on our post "Employee: Yahoo is a mess inside," tell us.