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FTC To Investigate 'Viral Marketing' Practices

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the take-what-ya-can-give-nuthin-back dept.

mcflaherty writes "The Federal Trade Commission has stated that it is going to investigate the use of 'Viral Marketing' by corporations. This is the type of advertising that seeks to start a word of mouth campaign for the product via consumers themselves. Previously, consumers themselves set the buzz. But lately advertisement firms are stepping up to the plate themselves, seeding the market with buzz that looks independent of the company, but is in fact funded by them. The crew at Penny Arcade contend that corporate generated buzz is not Viral Marketing, and perhaps Guerrilla Marketing would be a more apt term. Either way, it appears to be a profitable advertising model."

8 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. How low can they go? by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Either way, it appears to be a profitable advertising model.

    Of course it is, it exploits people's inherent trust for their friends' judgement: "if X says this and X is a nice guy, then X must be true". Only if X is paid by a corporation to spew out nice stuff about some product, it basically wrecks that basic principle of human communication.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:How low can they go? by Possibly+Malignant · · Score: 5, Informative

      "if X says this and X is a nice guy, then X must be true"

      There's a syntax error in your formula.

    2. Re:How low can they go? by IgLou · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Free speech should be for people, anything that is "said" by a business should be regulated. Consider this, disclosure prevents leaking information out about anything that could affect your stock price ahead of your official financial statements. That's regulated for a reason. If a corporation is trying to generate hype and calling it "viral marketing" is a lie in my books. The corporation is advertising through viral marketing and I as a consumer deserve to know when I'm looking at a fictionalized account for the purpose of advertising or if I'm looking at the real deal. I deserve to know if a company is trying to sell me something but disguising it as something else.

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  2. Astroturfing by duerra · · Score: 5, Informative

    It already has a name. It's called Astroturfing.

    Now we need to come up with a term for what will eventually prove to be its opposite. Corporate sabotage that seeks to inspire negative propoganda for another company. If Sony hadn't been repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot with a sawed-off 12 gauge lately and inspiring all their own negative publicity, I'd almost suspect that of their vomit-inducing attempt at creating buzz for the PSP.

    --
    A community-oriented lyrics site
    1. Re:Astroturfing by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It was no accident that site was 'discovered' as fake. How easy would it be for someone to use a privacy service on their registration? Personally, I think it worked very well - that site got more traffic than it ever would have if it had been legit.

    2. Re:Astroturfing by pimpimpim · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Well, at least viral marketing can be killed instantly by the negative karma that comes about when the blatant lies of this being an 'enthusiast's user opinion' are uncovered. I really like that aspect of viral marketing, the message will be accepted if the cooperation is fair about it, and just couldn't use original channels for an advertisment (for example a car advertizement that would be too shocking to show on TV, but is artistically interesting anyway.).

      However, if the cooperation is trying to screw us, and someone finds out (as will eventually happen anyway), the viral marketing works just as viral against the cooperation that started it. Therefore, viral marketing is playing with fire!

      All in all this must be the most fair form of advertizing, we the users can directly respons to it and decide if we like it or not.

      --
      molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
  3. Fitting story by wile_e_wonka · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IS slashdot trying to redeam itself after being conned into an instance of viral marketing?!

    See particularly this portion of the comments/story...

  4. Protect Me, Oh Federal Government by ml10422 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm a grown-up. I don't need the Federal government to protect me from viral advertising.

    For my entire life, I've been exposed to celebrity endorsements, and the only effect has been to fine tune my bullshit filter.

    Please refund the portion of my taxes that is going to paying these guys salaries.