Some marketers may understand how strip-mining consumer trust is costing them, but most don't want to take two steps back to the good old days. Instead, they're fighting the wrong fights. They're getting ready to sue TiVo, because the device makes it too easy to skip commercials. They're faking the headers on the spam that they send out to get past filters. They're lobbying Congress to stop the Do Not Call list.

But when a business spams, it has made its lack of respect clear. When an airline puts the "gotcha" into the fine print of a full-page ad, it's disrespecting consumers' intelligence. Running a business that can survive only by deception and disrespect is not our right -- our right is to realize our dead-end path and pick a better, more respectful business.