Blogger Swag

I got my very first piece of blogger swag delivered to my office mailbox on Wednesday. It consisted of an Extra-Large T-shirt emblazoned with the words "I'm a keeper," a button with the same message, a micro fiber screen cleaner, and, of course, a marketing packet in a snazzy, heavy-on-the-Helvetica white folder. The message inside reads, "Somebody thinks you're a keeper...Hi there! [notice it's not directed to me specifically] You've received this Keepsakes package because we at Keep (keep.com) think YOU are a Keeper. That's right — you! You are a tastemaker and influencer, and as such, we want to invite you to join us as we reinvent the way people shop online." Lucky me.

Should I be flattered by this? Should I be taken in by the oversize T-shirt and button? Do I have any right to be annoyed that the default size for Americans these days is XL? I couldn't wear the thing if I wanted to, at least, not while convincingly portraying myself as a fashionable, influential kind of guy. It's cool to be a tastemaker and all, even if I'm one of thousands of anonymous people addressed in a generic mass blogger mailing. But somehow I don't think I'll be doing much to promote Keep.com. Unless, that is, this report constitutes a form of promotion, in which case anything I say about them could be construed as a method of indirect marketing. I probably should have said nothing. But then what kind of social scientist would I be? So here I am, involuntarily promoting someone else's product, and let me tell you, after reading through the materials, I still don't quite understand what that product is, only that it will be "revolutionizing" the way people shop online. Revolution — it seems — comes cheap these days. Everyone's revolutionizing something.