I’ve been amused for weeks by 37signals marketing for their upcoming micro-CRM app Highrise because of the example contacts they’ve been using.

Every single screenshot has a list of contacts including the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, Apple’s Steve Jobs, Amazon founder (and 37signals investor) Jeff Bezos, and Newsweek scribe Steven Levy. The big product shot is a full-screen profile of Walt Mossberg that has DHH reverently quoting Wired calling Walt a “kingmaker”. I’m sure it’s gonna be a good product, and I’ve always been alternately pleased and bemused by the swaggering chutzpah of the Chicago boy band. But the real lesson I’m reminded of here is that you can do a lot worse than name-dropping those whom you want to impress.

This could be considered tending to the blank slate of press coverage.