For years, now, it’s been the case that you can’t swing a trade publication of any kind without smacking into another “digital revolution.”

The latest “digital revolution” to cross my path was announced over the weekend at SXSW by Marvel Comics. ComicVine reports:

“The Marvel AR app, powered by Aurasma, will be released in April for iOS and Android devices. By opening this app and scanning select Marvel products featuring theMarvel AR logo, you’ll unlock exclusive content starring the world’s most popular Super Heroes — including Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk and many others! Go behind the scenes of your favorite comics, see new footage, hear from creators, catch yourself up on past events and more!”

Revolution? We’ll see, but this lifelong comics fan and digital content creator for nearly two decades really doubts it. Sorta sounds to me like the Venn diagram intersection of DVD extras and the ol’ CueCat. Yawn.

The Better Business Bureau has assembled a nifty infographic illustrating the answer to exactly that question. Mashable reports and links.

Fast Company recently came up with 10 ways to fix the agency pitch process. They probably could have made it 20 or 25 without too much additional effort.

My biggest problem over the years with the whole process has been a lack of respect on both sides of the table. Agencies feel they’re being part of a cattle call, so they often don’t respect the company enough to do anything other than call it in, or they take an approach that begins with the assumption that they know far more about the company’s business than the company.

Meanwhile, companies don’t respect the agencies enough to thank them for putting in an RFP response effort that requires many thousands of dollars in billable time, and they take the ideas of the agencies they don’t hire and implement them internally or with the agency they do hire.

Either way you cut it, pitching sucks.

Which is why, in my humble opinion, there’s only one way to respond to an RFP: with your best effort, or not at all. If the agency doesn’t respond to your best work, well, you don’t really want to work for them, do you? If the agency receives your RFP response and you never hear from them again, well, you don’t really want to work for them, do you? If the agency steals your ideas, well, that’s the risk you take … and you don’t really want to work for thieves, do you?

Yeah, pitching sucks. That’s why it’s called work.

And by the way, if you’re one of those companies that calls in agencies and puts them through hours and hours of presentation work, makes them travel, listens to their presentation, then ignores them ever after? You suck, too, and it’s no wonder decent agencies don’t really want to work for you.

(Hat tip to Erik Hauser for the heads up on the FC piece.)

Every once in a when when there’s nothing major happening in online marketing news, or I get bored noodling around the latest trade newsletters and blogs, or I’m still trying to wake up in the morning, I Google various phrases that may or may not turn up interesting results.

This morning I Googled “ridiculous internet marketing” and came up with this December 2011 article from ZD Net. It’s worth the read, if only to remind us about the idiots out there who help make internet marketing a profession that’s respected about as much as used car salesmen and telemarketers.

I can’t think of anything that Penn & Teller have done that isn’t interesting, entertaining, provocative, thoughtful or otherwise worth experiencing. So when Teller reveals his secrets over at Smithsonian.com, it’s an article worth reading.

Of course, no article online stands alone — at least not one that allows comments, and the comments on this article were as interesting as any. Especially this one from one Bill Davis:

Wow, this stuff totally applies to marketing! Except with magic, people expect to be tricked. With marketing, they expect to be…um, told the truth? Yeah, that’s it. No, seriously, these secrets can definitely be applied to marketing ethically.

It’s a great observation, and it led me to reread the article with marketing in mind. Go ahead and do the same: I bet observations like “If you are given a choice, you believe you have acted freely” and “Nothing fools you better than the lie you tell yourself” resonate with you more than just magically.