Cheat, cheat, never beat. Didn’t we all learn that lesson long ago? Apparently, it’s a lesson lost on a CBS news producer who got caught with fingers in the creative cookie jar and paid with their job.

Katie Couric’s Notebook is a regular feature on the CBS Evening News where the anchor comments on a topic of her choice. Her recent commentary on the growing obsolescence of libraries, it turns out, wasn’t just bad journalism–it was plagiarism. Theft. Worst of it, it wasn’t even Katie’s dirty work

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We should all have this kind of success. Apple sold it’s 100-millionth iPod. How many did they sell because of discount sales? Did detailed ads explaining the many features and functions put them over the top?

Five-and-a-half years of iPodding demonstrates the effectiveness of attraction marketing. Teathered in our ears, iPods deliver choice in our hands; extreme intimate connection–personalized.

Choice is proof you’ve become transparent to consumers;  turning over the reins of control. It’s actually more a case of admitting control has been taken. iPods don’t come pre-loaded. They’re individual expressions of their owner. (The only condition is digital rights management (DRM), a condition imposed by the music industry likely to pass into history soon.)

iPods are all about salience: choice of song without obligation to an album, choice of genres, sequence, etc. They’re examples to all of us what’s possible by truly understanding customer desire and helping satisfy it. Do that and they’ll say thank you 100-million times.

[Originally published 10 April 2007]

Broadcasting pioneer Ralph Edwards, host of the once-popular 1950’s “This Is Your Life” television show, died Wednesday. Edwards was also once the host of “Truth or Consequences,” the first commercial show for NBC. Edwards said, “A ten-second commercial on the program cost $9.”

Ralph Edwards represents a face of television–and how it has changed. His syrupy-sweet “This Is Your Life,” held viewers spell-bound hearing life stories unfold in the space of 30 minutes. It was respectful, plodding and dripped with sincerity.

Just like TV today…  uh-huh, right.

Whether media reflects us or we reflect it, changes in both since Ralph Edwards first visited our living rooms is undeniable. And yet, so many times are the practices of that era are carried forward into this one as if by habit.

There’s a new face reflecting our times from TV screens: it’s one part cynical and two parts savvy. Ralph Edwards’ “This Is Your Life” has been replaced by the E-Channel’s endless loop of slimy exposés. News is no longer sacred, but grist for sharp social commentary paraded as comedy. You may not like it, or even “get” it. But, this is the market we’re living and working in.

This isn’t a call to arms. It’s a wake-up call. In the nine miles I drive between home and office, I’m assaulted by a stream of ad-speak encrusted messages no doubt zoning out listeners quicker than an HR department slide show. Yours doesn’t have to be one of them.

Be your ad and take a hard look in the mirror. Do you reflect what your customers care about most? Are you speaking their language? Is your message genuine and credible? Unless you can absolutely say yes* to all three questions, perhaps it’s time to do some face changing of your own.

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Nestled beneath my ’66 Oldsmobile Delta 88’s dashboard hung a marvel of technology granting me access to broadcasts mere mortal AM radios couldn’t. It was a brave new static-free world called FM.

My FM adapter is early evidence of what is obvious to all who know me: I am an early adopter.

Live long enough and you’ll see history repeat itself–and so it is with my XM Radio. When I got another cool little adapter allowing my now merely mortal FM radio to receive broadcasts from space, I thought I was out front. And, like my FM adapter, I paid good money for that gadget.

Last night, I received a broadcast email with amazing offers and about spit out my decafe latte… There, right next to the free picture phone (paid good money for mine) was FREE satellite radio. FREE!

Well that’s just fine. I reccon it won’t be long until my XM Radio adapter will wind up in a box along with my FM Adapter, record player, 8-Track Player, Cassette Recorder, VCR and analog television…

And in case you’re wondering why you can now buy a DVD player at the grocery store for $29 (like I did last week), you better read this.