The cartoon has that same impact. People are just so happy that I'm talking about engineers that it doesn't matter what I say. They're far more interested in being recognized than in being respected. I think dealing with marketing people is the hardest thing. And, in particular, they have to learn how to be less honest.
Nothing gets engineers in more trouble than being honest.
I recently heard this story about an engineer who was manning a booth at a trade show. As a customer would come up, the engineer would take the company's marketing brochure, pull out a pen, and line out all the things that were lies, correct them, then give the customer a brochure. He made the mistake of doing that same thing when a senior executive from his company came up. Apparently that was his last day of work. It sounds like something right out of your strip.