Viral marketers, we're on to you—thanks to the Federal Trade Commission! Yesterday, the FTC weighed in on the word-of-mouth style of marketing—aka "peer-to-peer communication" which can range from blogs, forum posts, or the opinion of a compensated stranger on the street—telling those advertising in a "viral" sense that the relationship between advertiser and company must be disclosed.

Oftentimes, internet detectives work out the relationship themselves. In the case of the I Love Bees campaign, those plodding through the Halo 2-based alternate reality game courtesy of 42 Entertainment and Microsoft were well aware of the relationship and seemingly quite enjoyed being marketed to.

However, when viral marketing goes horribly wrong, it can lead to backlash, say in the case of Sony's very recent attempt to shill PSPs via YouTube and embarrasingly composed blogs, or Sony's former attempt to shill PSPs with edgy street grafitti.

Let's hope this move cuts down on the lame attempts to covertly market to us so we can tell the authentic shitty YouTube videos from the fake shitty YouTube videos. Michael McWhertor

FTC Moves to Unmask Word-of-Mouth Marketing

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