I saw a piece on 60-minutes earlier tonight about companies using carefully, strategically placed “agents” to prominently postion a product , under the guise of public-but-private use, to “lure” people into catching an eyeful (the first example was a video game that utilized a sensor-glove-joystick to navigate and operate key operations in some environment). The question posed was whether this was “deception” or “manipulative”. (see the write-up on cbs.com)

It occurred to me that this is marketing that uses a form of “CLuetrainish” philosophy: that people prefer getting their info and endorsements virally; IOW, to get the scoop about things from the views and experiences of acquaintances. (Another segment showed marketing of a movie whose name escapes me at the moment but it included the word Cowboy and it was animated— but this marketing company was asked if there was something unethical about using a 13-year old as an agent, whom they paid in “Movie Merchandise” because the boy absolutely loved the movie; so, to him, it was justifiable reward. The marketer replied, “How is it wrong, if the person is passionate about it, loves talking about it, and is absolutely convincing because he is a fan himself?)”. Again, very “Cluetrainish”, and a very good point.