Article: Have You Been Tricked by Viral Marketing? Join the Crowd

This is an interesting article on the viral marketing phenomenon.

Here are some tidbits from the article:

- "Viral marketing certainly comes with all sorts of malevolent connotations attached. Just the term "viral" in and of itself often conjures up images of catastrophe: crashing computers, avian flu epidemics, or maybe that disease-ridden monkey from Outbreak. But in reality, the world "viral" is often used to refer to any self-replicating phenomenon, biological, technological or otherwise. In the case of marketing, it refers to any kind of promotional campaign that relies on consumer endorsement to gain momentum and exposure."

- "Sony's embarrassing PSP video game console campaign in 2006 was the first example that sprang to my mind. Between their fake promotional blog, their agonizingly uncool "All I want for Christmas is a PSP" YouTube music video and their faked urban graffiti, the company's reputation has been dragged through the mud recently, despite having some of the highest-ranked conventional ads five years ago. On the Engadget website, comment threads can be found in which people say they're too ashamed to buy Sony products anymore."

- "Scary as it may sound, viral marketing seems to be more about increasing consultation between people selling stuff and people buying stuff than it is about infecting the susceptible masses and exploiting them. Though there are definitely unethical companies to watch out for, it seems that the droves of online private eyes out there do a pretty good job making sure they get their just desserts.

- "Hermida believes the underlying assumption regulating the spread of viral marketing is that people aren't stupid."

Interesting read.