Although I love the spider story, and I have no idea how my sister became so wise (and remains so), I told it for a reason.

Imagine: If no-one did any marketing, would we stop buying Soap? Shampoo? Petrol? Shoes? Light Bulbs? Chips n Dips?

If there were no advertising, would we never have learned about Winning With Worst Practices? (Amazon Sales Rank 2,491. I note that ClueTrain is at 44,035. I have no idea what that means.)

OK, Chris readily admits that advertising is in some sense half the reason he inveigled us into subscribing to RageBoy's list in the first place, but that is the point: the other half is that WE get something of value out of it - it ain't just one-way traffic. It's a conversation that we've entered into voluntarily, not a speech, a lecture, a sermon, or a broadcast.

If we pull the legs off the marcomm people where we work, will the organisation go deaf?

Will we, as individuals, stop having conversations with our customers, with their customers, with our colleagues, with our suppliers, and with our friends?

I don't think so. But someone apparently fears that it might be so . . . . . .

(marcomm = marketing/communications)