Clutter is a powerful foe. We are surrounded by it at every turn. How many magazines can we really read at our leisure? How many “exclusives” can make us choose an evening news program? How many online news portals can you really spend time each day reading through? We join Twitter and strive to have thousands of followers, but how many of those followers can we really pay attention to?

There’s just so much out there — especially in an ongoing 24-hour news cycle, with thousands of humor, lifestyle and news Websites as well as communities, Facebook fan pages, and more — it’s really hard to break through it all and grab someone’s attention.

Now put this into the context of breaking through that clutter for a client. As a former longtime traditional PR guy, I used to find the best way to break through the clutter of the 100-plus daily pitches many reporters receive was to begin e-mails with unconventional openings.

“Howdy, I like mustaches. I like sausage. I like people under 4′8. And I’m hoping we can find some common ground so that you’ll be able to tolerate this horrendous but possibly relevant pitch I’m going to lay on you.”

It seemed to work better than, say:

“Mr. Jones, I’d like to tell you about how my client is helping to change the way in which business is occurring in today’s market.”

Yawn…..

I’ve always been a break through the clutter type of person. Part of it’s my nature, part is strategy, part is luck. That’s why the American Mustache Institute (AMI), which I created with a group of colleagues, has always been a great ice breaker as well as an unquestionable media phenomenon. It’s different, it’s ridiculous, it makes fun of some of the silly third parties around the world, and it strives to engage and enliven.

Bloggers find it amusing, reporters find it quasi-credible yet funny, and consumers find it bizarre enough to come back over and over again. It’s been my personal petri dish to learn that sometimes you have to kick people in the junk to make them pay attention.

And so I was heartened to read today that the venerable, old-line Newsweek, which two weeks ago announced yet another redesign, has decided to shake things up as well by signing on Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert to serve as guest editor for the next issue that hits newsstands on June 8.

I’ve always thought the network evening newscasts should take a similar tact by including an amusing report in each broadcast by a Colbert-type. Or even go sign Kai Ryssdal from Marketplace Radio — a good looking guy who delivers the news in a more modern, light-hearted tone — to serve as the lead anchor.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see how Newsweek editor Jon Meacham’s Colbert experiment pans out. Is Colbert a “Clutter Buster?” It remains to be seen. Maybe it will give the magazine a bit of a bump in readership, maybe it won’t. But at least they are realizing that it takes more than just good reporting and exclusives in today’s cluttered landscape to earn the hearts and minds of the modern media consumer.