The note from the mystery promotional notepad from two or three entries down is from LaQuinta. The name of the hotel chain was printed on the side of the notepad. The whole pad has a diagonal cut which displays the name of the hotel. The promotional item was designed as a whole and a single part cannot promote LaQuinta. Once a sheet is removed from the pad the La Quinta name is no longer visible. As sheets are removed the name will disappear. This is a very ineffective marketing gimmick.

I know I'm talking about LaQuinta and thus promoting the hotel chain but I'm only able to do that because the whole notepad was easily available to me. Yes, the note piqued my curiosity and now LaQuinta has embedded itself on to one of my neurons. If I receive another note from the same pad I now know that it is from LaQuinta.

What if the note was from a passing contact rather than someone that I contact daily? What if I could not satisfy my curiosity? The hunger for information would have eaten a tiny hole in my brain and tiny holes have a way of becoming larger over a lifetime. The tiny holes get together and eventually your brain just disappears. The barrage of ineffective and stupid marketing one receives over a lifetime is the real cause of Alzheimer's.

Dilbert is right. Marketing is the root of all evil.