Fiona Apple "Sleep To Dream"

Remember back in the day, when you'd get a box of Cap't Crunch, and mow your way through bowl after bowl to get to the prize at the bottom?

I think record promoters sometimes think they can appeal to a programmer's, 10-year-old saturday-morning-cartoon-watching self. Because sometimes (if the budget allows) you can get some pretty funny things in the mail, along with a CD.

Sure, there's the standard bumper stickers and posters, but the tchochkes can get quite elaborate.

For the "Up In The Air" soundtrack, they sent a T-shirt, and a toy plane--the little kind the pilot might give you on your first flight.

For an up-and-coming artist, who's first single had "salt" in the title, they sent the CD in a round metal case, that can be used as a margarita rim salter.

Once, I even got an actual bologna sandwich on Wonderbread, from a band trying to market themselves as "white trash rappers."

Much of this stuff goes directly in the garbage (especially an unwrapped sandwich), but occasionally we get something that proves itself useful and interesting.

In the production studio, sits our Fiona Apple alarm clock, with a snooze button that says "Sleep To Dream." Clever. And when I look at the time, I think of Fiona Apple. Now that's marketing!