Small Town, USA.

I never read anything by Seth Godin except for the occasional blog post someone sends me. And the two books I've read by Malcolm Gladwell, "The Tipping Point," and "Blink," left me thoroughly unimpressed. It seems these pundits, and pundits like them, state the obvious. But only, of course, after they clothe it in acres of bs and frippery.

A year ago, I was fired.

Fired, expensive and 56 ain't a great combination.

I was scared. Panicked even.

But what I soon realized is that advertising is really a small town. And people who live in this town, for the most part anyway, know me and respect me. In short order, I started get work. Dribs and drabs. Then, as word of my availability spread, I started getting a lot of work.

There's a whole lot of bushwa in the world of marketing.

A lot of hot air will be expended at South by Southwest over the next couple of days. I'm already tasting the vomit in my mouth from the Facebook pictures I'm sure to see.

But all you really need to know about marketing, I think, is this.

People crave living in a small town. Where people are friendly to each other. Where they help each other out. Where merchants earn and reward loyalty and try to serve you.

If you think about it, that's exactly what Amazon does.

They may be vast, but their algorithms act like they know you. And they consistently make things easy for you.

I've had this idea of late--a kind of a Ralph Kramden "Get Rich Quick" scheme. I'll call it "The roll of your life."

Every morning for about five bucks I'll deliver two hot rolls to your door and a cup of java. That's it.

You can't really find a bakery anymore that sells nice, freshly-baked bread.

I think that's what's wrong with the world.