Wednesday October 12, 2005

Shut Your Mouth

Interesting day yesterday at the blog of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). On the one hand, we get cheers for WOMMA CEO Andy Sernovitz, whose defense of his organization’s commitment to “honest discussions”—a spirited rebuttal of this article—appears in this week’s AdAge. Then, in the very next post, we get what AdFreak dubs “the creepiest marketing story ever told.” Here’s how the Freak tells it:

Seems a guy named Tom Coates, who works for the BBC, posts a long item on his personal blog, plasticbag.org, about how he hasn’t spoken to his father in 30 years. Among the sympathetic postings is one from a “Barry Scott,” who says he went through a similar ordeal but decided to make amends with his dad. He even says Coates can “drop [him] a line” if he needs further support. But as it turns out, Barry Scott doesn’t exist—except as an alleged spokesperson for Reckitt Benckiser’s household cleaner Cillit Bang.

An imaginary spokesperson offering personal advice? No matter how you describe it, or what standards the industry adopts, this sort of marketing is always going to feel a little like human cloning—an artificial intrusion into life that will always be, above all else, universally unpopular.

Posted by jim at 08:58 AM ||