When no one else can help, turn to the Seth Godin action figure

It's not often that a PR kit gets my attention, but when I received an action figure of marketing author and blogger Seth Godin in the mail, I just had to acknowledge the originality of it. The action figure's packaging contains a sticker inviting me to the 2009 Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) Summit, where Godin will be featured as a keynote speaker. It also notes that Godin is "much more interesting (and flexible) in real life." (He also "has big ideas so you don't have to!") The back of the box contains info on the summit and a few fun facts about the marketing guru, like his weapons of choice: "neologisms and shiny head." The Seth action figure's actually been around for a while—it looks like MIMA just picked up a bunch of them to help advertise this conference. You can buy your own Little Seth here, where the description includes the following: "You could pay millions of dollars for consultants, but why not just get the Marketing Guru Action Figure? ... It's rumored that if you want an insight into what your customers want and how they'd like to be communicated with, you can rub Seth's bald head and all will be made clear." I'm giving this a thumbs-up for creativity, and of course, for Little Seth's mismatched socks.

—Posted by Elena Malykhina

Seth Godin doesn't have a Purple Cow over Twitter imposters

First there was the Fake Steve Jobs, then the Fake Steve Ballmer and there was even a fake version of Adweek’s Brian Morrissey for a while. But perhaps no one in the marketing world attracts as many fake doppelgangers as Seth Godin. Godin does not actually Twitter ("I'd be on it all day," says Godin, who adds that he has had ADD all his life), but he frequently has to contact Twitter to eliminate Seth imposters. There are currently at least two, including Seth_Godin, who has more than 7,000 followers and only one post, which directs readers to a URL where they can get Godin’s ebook Tribes. While that one seems relatively innocuous, a self-proclaimed fakeSethGodin features a Photoshopped picture of Godin (or maybe Star Trek's Jean-Luc Picard) extending his middle finger and appears to be a spambot that posts the same three or four updates in perpetuity. "I can’t see why anyone would want to follow him," Godin says.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman