J-J-Jaded

I'm a little giddy tonight because I finally made it to the local running store's 7 PM Tuesday run. It was free. It was very pleasant. Still, I couldn't help thinking that it was a brilliant marketing ploy. Brilliant may be too strong of a word since only 5 of us who weren't already employees actually went on the run, but certainly a very fine marketing ploy. I now have good will toward the store. I'll probably buy my next shoes from that very spot. I'll be telling the local runners I know, "Hey, this store puts on a weekly run, you should come join it." Then they'll come and they'll shop at this store and it will snowball like DC snow, so only a little, but still very fine, I say. But, but, but...

Maybe it's not a ploy. How can I tell a ploy from just plain good intentions? What happens if a ploy and good intentions overlap almost completely? Is that big, bad, and scary? Or just awesome?

Let's check in with Aerosmith- My, my, baby blue... and I'm the one that jaded you.

Ah, it's Steven Tyler's fault. Or more likely it's at least bordering on awesome. If we're going to live in a consumer-driven society the place where good intentions and ploy overlap is the place I think I want to be.