A small but significant example of a successful company that says they care and shows it. SWA has always favored "plain language" messaging and connecting person-to-person. The recorded jokes when on phone hold, the goofy singing by flight attendants, and now this "We miss you" e-mail message. Southwest Airlines knows how to connect. Which is one reason why they've been the only airline to be profitable many years running. Another example of customer intimacy paying off!

So I open an e-mail from my sister that says this: Your friend Roz Becker sent you the following video from CNNBC: "Glenn Beck Attacks Moshe Engelberg." I click on the link and watch an incredibly well done video starring... me. Sort of.

The Huffington Post tells the story: MoveOn.org, in conjunction with SEIU and Brave New Films has put out a fake newscast (on the fake network CNNBC) in which the Fox News host goes through his usual moments of pique and emotional duress. Only this time, the subject of his conspiracy theories is the person signed in to watch the made-up video. And they show an example of the mock newscast.

As part of a marketing campaign, this approach has great promise. It personalized the video by using a Facebook interface that grabbed my photo and some friend's names to instantly create a fake newscast that was about me. Think about the possibilities for personalizing ads of all sorts. What a great way to increase the personal relevance of a product or service! Unbelievable.

Is this the beginning of Web 3.0??

Obama just nominated Regina Benjamin, MD to be our new Surgeon General. She's a family doctor in the shrimping village of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, winner of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" and on board of trustees of the American Medical Association.

One article credited her going back as a physician for an MBA degree as evidence that she's politically savvy, presuming that people with political ambitions get MBAs. I'm thinking of my many MBA students who for some reason chose corporate paths. Hmmm.

To me, the fact that Dr. Benjamin spent much of her career dealing hands-on with poor folks in need of care bodes well for healthcare reform. And that's how Obama introduced her, someone "who understands the urgency of meeting this challenge in a personal and powerful way..."

Onward, healthcare reform!