On the Saturday after Congress approved the new energy bill that (among other things) extended daylight savings time next year, I was on I-40 between Nashville and Knoxville when Paul Harvey's news and comment came on the radio. The old man is famous for hating "fast time" and he blasted the Feds for the change.

However, something he said has stuck with me a few weeks later...

Daylight Savings Time is less a savings of energy than a show of the government's power. Kings and other rulers in the past would adjust the calendar to show power to their subjects. Uncle Paul's treatise was that we were still simpletons who blindly change our clock just because the government tells us to.

In one section of a marketing keynote that I give, I present two basic truths about marketing to the masses:

• People are Smarter than you give them credit
• People are Dumber than you think

Both of these are equally true. As has been posted here during the BlogJam, big brand blogging, ads as celebrity, and other lies that marketers tell show that people can be led astray either very easily or not at all. And there's not that much difference (on the surface anyway)in the marketing strategies of either one.

A great example is the new "Adult Hits" radio format which had a lively debate on FC Now back in June. You may know this radio station in your market as Jack-FM, Bob-FM, Sam-FM, etc. "We play everything!"... "We play what we want" are different positioning statements that these stations use. (Mmmm...I'm still waiting to hear Ernest Tubb's "I'm Walkin' the Floor Over You" or Bach's "Orchestral Suite No. 2".) Fans of these stations will tell you that the station has "no rules" for what they play. In reality, it's a pretty controlled playlist of Top 40 hits from the early '70s to the late '90s. These listeners believe this story because from their P.O.V., radio is "broken" and this station is out to change it...when in reality, it's more of the same. (Back in May, I railed about "jack" and the demise of radio in a post on my blog.)

People believe what they are told unless it goes against something they already believe. How are you going against the grain of what your customers already believe? Why not lead them in the way they already want to go?