I think the author of this article* is a bit confused between 'Marketing Linux' and 'Spreading Awareness' and doing them in 'Slick/Sick' ways. The AIDS awareness campaign has been extremely successful in many parts of India... and they were marketing nothing. But too many educated people and in responsible positions are still hardly aware of the importance of FOSS and Linux.
* See http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20711/1090/ and the comments too.
Quote: "To some people, all marketing is evil. You write something brilliant and then keep it under a bushel. How will the rest of the world know? And doesn't the rest of the world need to know?
When there are all kinds of spinmeisters trying to market things that can only be described as crap, what's wrong with putting the best possible marketing brains to work for a good product?
The example which I always trot out at times like this is Betamax which beat VHS hands down. But it didn't win the marketshare needed to become the dominant standard."
Best
A. Mani