All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin

It takes a real man to change a worldview

Craig Knight points us to Welcome To Charles Atlas Ltd..

Atlas (not his real name, I'm guessing) was in the right place at the right time with the right message. Before he came along almost a hundred years ago, the idea of bodybuilding was largely unknown. You spent your life trying to get lucky enough to avoid physical labor and exercise, after all.

The success of efforts like his makes many of us believe it's easy to change the way the world thinks about an industry. It's not.

Now on the comic page

A reader sent this one, from the Denver Post, just this weekend.

The $9 story

Check in to the $300 a night room at the W Hotel in San Francisco and this high tech device is waiting for you on the desk.

No, it doesn't run the Windows Tablet OS. Yes, it is a cheap way to tell a story about the hotel's attitude. If you don't "get it" they don't lose much, but they weren't talking to you in the first place.

a sign story

This is the PULL THE DOOR sign from the local Pain Quotidien organic bakery and cafe.

Even though an illiterate person has at least a fifty fifty chance of getting through this door on the first try, the sign on the door serves a valuable purpose. It tells a story about the attitude of management, a story that fits the worldview of many that would choose to come.

An error

a few people have written to point out that on p. 68 I make a reference to MS and dopamine.

I'm going to go through my archives for the source, but it appears as though I got the ailment wrong. My apologies to anyone who has a friend (or is personally) suffering with MS. I'm sorry if I caused any concern or false hope.

Thanks for writing and I'll have this confirmed or changed for the next printing.