All Marketers are Apparently Liars

Tell me something I don’t know. Seth Godin has a new, provocatively-titled book and, of course, a new blog. He points to an interesting case of duplicity from Visa:

Eric Myers points out this nefarious fraud. The catch? Even though it seems embossed, there is no credit card inside. It’s designed to trick you into opening a solicitation for a new card, even though there’s no card inside.

Seth undersells the Moleskine notebook. Yes, it’s a mark of snobbery and elitism, but what (as The Rebel Sell teaches us) isn’t? More importantly, it’s an excellent notebook. Seth fails to mention the author most closely associated with the Moleskine–Bruce Chatwin. If you haven’t read The Songlines or In Patagonia, go out and buy them–they are some of the twentieth century’s finest travel literature. Also worthy of note is the Moleskine blog.