Someone sent me this. Wish I knew the source. If you’ve been through the marketing sausage factory, you’ll enjoy this.

10. You lecture the neighborhood kids selling lemonade on ways to improve their look-to-buy ratio.

9. You get all excited when it’s Saturday so you can wear casual clothes to work.

8. You refer to the tomatoes grown in your garden as "deliverables."

7. You find you really need PowerPoint to explain what you do for a living.

6. You normally eat out of vending machines and at the most expensive restaurant in town within the same week.

5. You wear gray to work, instead of navy blue, to make a bold fashion statement.

4. You know the people at the airport and hotel better than your next-door neighbors.

3. You ask your friends to "think out of the box" when making Friday night plans.

2. You think Einstein would have been more effective had he put his ideas into a matrix.

1. You think a "half-day" means leaving work at 5 o’clock.

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I just read Constantin Basturea’s post about how the word ‘integrity’ is the most looked up word at Merriam-Webster’s. There are some 160 million references in Google (but these also index brokers, insurance companies and management firms etc)

But here’s a related topic: The fake Wikipedia post about the Kennedy assassination.

This isn’t the first time someone has played a Wikipedia prank. The BBC created a page on Wikipedia about a fictional star for a game that involved sms and email.

If you’re into podcasting, you’ll be shocked to hear that its so-called ‘podfather,’ Adam Curry, was recently in an controversy over editing a Wikipedia entry. He later apologized.

So what does this do for an open source encyclopedia? Let’s not get too upset with pranks and games that may discredit it. Like other sources of information that could be inaccurate at times, Wikipedia is just one source (albeit a damn good one) among hundreds we could turn to. How many times have we spotted inaccuracies and ‘plugs’ in newspapers and magazines? Yet, these are still around, in spite of the shoddy reporting and outdated facts that creep in. I will still use Wikipedia, in spite of the attacks on it by folks like Unencyclopedia.

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We know this for sure: The revolution will not be televised –it will be spread by cell phone.

If you’ve never heard of riot tones, you soon will. It’s part of something called open source ring tones, that will be taking on the ring-tone economy.

But there’s more to it than free distribution of tones. These are supposedly ways to make a statement. Check out this backgrounder. Also the story of using ring tones in the Phillipines, where two words (‘Hello Garci’) were turned into a viral campaign spread via mobile phones. See TxtPower.org

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I have occasionally jotted down notes on how to reach the impossible-to-reach customer service rep at banks, airlines, and Amazon.com who typically make you cycle through menus of menus.

A smart guy, Paul English, has come up with an expanded list. This cheat sheet’s worth printing out and keeping handy. Find it here: http://www.paulenglish.com/ivr/

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Inmarsat today announced its global broadband service called BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network) in London. 4 satellites will cover Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa initially.

The Americas will get the service in 2006.

This is a truly global broadband product since it will cover 85% of the world’s landmass.

Check it out here. www.inmarsat.org

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Thanks to my cousin, Kumar Pereira, for this reference about a campaign in Australia. Carlton Draught Beer’s web experience called "It’s a Big Ad." Hard to describe this, because it’s so funny and watchable. Find it here. It was a viral marketing campaign, spread via blogs.

Another great idea: Virgin Mobile offers what it calls a PressurePoint Presentation. For kids. It is part of an Enlightenment Kit they offer teens who are trying to persuade parents they need a cool new phone.

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Robert Scoble, the Microsoft blogger is always worth checking, even if you don’t work in Microsoft, or have any interest in the software biz. Why? he gives you a fresh perspective on how employees ought to speak on behalf of their companies, whether of not they blog about it.

Take this post from Friday, September 16. Scoble comments on a post from someone writing about his CEO, Steve Ballmer:

SteveB, the Web isn’t something you can win. The Web is something you can love. Or something you can hate. But it’s not something you can enslave or own — anymore than you can own or enslave oxygen or water.

I think SteveB assumes we all know what he’s talking about. I think he’s talking about businesses on the Web and not the Web itself. Sorta like you can own a fish that swims in the sea, but you can’t own the sea itself. I know I’ve often heard him speak and find myself saying "huh?" but when I add "profitable business" to what he’s saying it makes a lot more sense.

How often would talk back to your CEO like that?

Which brings me to aomething else. Corporate-lingua franca. In IABC’s magazine CW, this month, John Freivalds speaks of how marketing slogans, ads, trademarks are only a limited part f a company’s identity. He cites Microsoft as having a web site for developers and corporate communictors called Dr. International. How many companies take the time to give its external players that kind of support?

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I cannot help noticing the similarities between what happened last December in South Asia, and what’s happening now in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. As someone who runs a tsunali relief site, I have to say that the response to that tragedy then was beyond magination. People were not simply generous, but it demonstrated the power of true networking.

I may be wrong, but the grass roots movements appear to be slow to get behind this enormous tragedy in our country. However, there are organizations that have responded, as true marketers and communicators should. Here are some:

Marketing Sherpa:http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=3068 This is a list of Marketing, PR, and Advertising organizations who have got things moving.

Jeremy Pepper has a post about what PR people can do.

One blog stands out for reporting the true situation from the ground.

I suppose it’s suddenly dawning upon everyone that gas price hikes across the country are just the tip of the iceberg. The ripple effect on many aspects of the economy will be huge, and we better get prepared to deal with it, no matter whatbusiness we are in. A snapshot of that, at a local level, can be found in this post on Dave Barry’s blog, where someone from Houston observes:

As a Houstonian, I am embarrassed to admit that on the radio, TV, and even here in the office, people’s comments have gone from "Oh, that’s terrible!" to "Wait a minute, they’re all coming here?!? 25,000?!? What about us?"

It’s not just neighboring cities and states that need to wake up to this reality. I just returned from a visit to Sri Lanka, where all the fund raising in the world (and the world was very generous) has not begun to solve the social problems that the tsunami has created. People are still living under plastic sheets… 

One last thought: Communications. We hear that communications is coming to the Astro Dome. If we were able to track this massive hurricane, why was it not possible to deploy temporary transmitters in advance of, or immediately following Katrina to the areas where flooding was predicted, knowing fully well that existing cell phone and other communications infrastructure would fail? I say this because I there are companies who send up balloons into disaster areas, and others that can provide mobile transmitters. Space Data Corp is one of them that comes to mind.

In Sri Lanka, a local private telecom company rushed in and installed temporary towers to stricken areas, even before the waters receded. Roads were inaccessible for days, but communication was up, fast.

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Just came across this site and a fast-spreading idea that began in London.

"We  Are Not Afraid" is a neat Word-Of-Mouth campaign  in response to the terrorism that London experienced.

The site declares, in manifesto style, that:

We are not afraid to ride public transportation.

We are not afraid to walk down a crowded street.

We are not afraid of each other.

We are not afraid to say that terrorism in any form is never the answer.

The site allows people to upload images that illustrate the idea, as in the one above. Contributors should note that no images depicting revenge, religious iconography, swear words etc will be accepted. Take a look at the dozens of submissions from around the world. Some are simple Photoshopped images, but some are very clever. There are some 400 galleries, as of today!

Also see the Tube Relief site, and this link, for a similar use of the existing London Underground logo, being adapted to this grassroots campaign.

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Sports as a war metaphor is the ultimate cliche, right? If you’re a creative director, and you want to do another war-themed ad using a sport, you might pick the tougher events –boxing, football etc. Archery, and javelin, even.

But tennis? This is the game where the worst thing the baddies do is fling their rackets, and utter obsceneties at the unpire. Think again. Playstation2 has created an unforgettable commercial, a TBWA Madrid effort, where the ‘gentleman’s game’ is played on a battlefield that could belong to any WW2 movie set –with some Saving Private Ryan groans and special efx. Shot in B&W, with only the balls in green, the action is funny and riveting. Funny, because thw warriors wear shorts, and white shirts for godness sake.

This is one commercial that makes you wish you owned a TiVo –to watch over and over again, which is rare for commercials these days. See it here.

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