It's true. Here at the Renaissance in downtown DC this is what you get inside the toilet. It's an ad for a fancy toilet from Toto, yet this is not that toilet. I got the standard bowl in my room and was only left wanting for the amazing features the fancy bowl could offer.

Wouldn't Toto accomplish much more if they actually put the fancy toilets in each room for free? How many more could they sell if people could, er, "sample" them?

And to the folks at Marriott, who own the Renaissance brand: how much did you get for this? Probably enough to defer the cost of the $12.95 you charged me for a lousy Internet connection.

To use the latest marketing lingo, this qualifies as the opposite of Marketing with Meaning, but they're in really "good" company, as many others can't resist the few hundred extra dollars in advertising revenue.