Marketing Guru Steve Rubel Talks with Brian About Info Overload from Brian Lehrer Live on Vimeo.

Edelman's Steve Rubel was recently on the Brian Lehrer show, talking about "marketing pollution" among other topics.

A choice exchange towards the beginning of the interview:

Lehrer: You're saying that the internet itself is polluted.

Rubel: I think so. To a large degree. Because I think what ends up happening is a lot of marketers are going at it the wrong way. And they're just, you know, they're viewing it as a communications vehicle only, and they're blasting their messages out there. There are people who are doing it in a, there are some people who do it in a very correct way, in a polite way, in an inviting way, and then there's people who of course are spammers, and you know, people who put spy-ware on your computer, who do it in a totally different way. But, you know...very few marketers are being inviting and kind of saying 'come and have a conversation with us,' so that we can kind of work towards a shared outcome. And I think we're going to see more marketers do that. It makes marketing more meaningful as opposed to just being a pitch.

Lehrer: But you're working for a marketing firm, a public relations firm.

Rubel: I am.

Lehrer: Criticizing the way marketers are using the web?

Rubel: Yup, as of today.

When asked for an example of marketers doing things the right way, and having a conversation, Rubel cites MyStarbucksIdea.com, the social media site created for Starbucks by Edelman (he did disclose the relationship on the show).