Are You Kiddin' Me?

Word of Mouth Marketing

December 14, 2006

Here is a rant, sort of. With the recent revelations of ID theft by illegal U.S. workers, one would think that the FTC would not have time to mess with other issues. According to a report this year release by the Federal Trade Commission report, complaints of identity theft increased by 25 percent from 2003 and 2005. ID theft has resulted in about $5 billion in financial losses to victims and has cost business more than $48 billion. THAT is a big issue, I would think.

However, apparently another plague attacking the American consumer is… get this … “word of mouth marketing.” Yes, in a story in the Washington Post, the FTC has had enough of this, this “word-of-mouth marketing” dirge. Here is an excerpt from their filed opinion:

companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships.

What defines “word-of-mouth” marketing, you ask? They have even provided a handy little checklist:

Word-of-mouth marketing can take any form of peer-to-peer communication, such as a post on a Web blog, a MySpace.com page for a movie character, or the comments of a stranger on a bus.

A post on a blog, ok, fine. I can see that, especially if the blog is viewed as an authority. Ditto for the MySpace page. But, “comments of a stranger on a bus”, are you serious?

I am speechless. Maybe I am just a doofus (yes, I have been called that before :)), but are you serious?! How in the world will you enforce that? And further, can someone please tell me why the FTC is spending ANY of their resources (let alone the sheer volumn of work involved in researching and filing an opinion) on “word-of-mouth” marketing?

Maybe it is a bigger issue than I am aware. And I am not saying that it should not be addressed. But, where does the $5 billion in financial losses for US consumer’s rank?

I am not one that claims to know everything when I post on our blog, so if someone can shed some light on this or give me some further details, I am all for it! (Movie quote: “I’m not a smart man.” – what’s the movie?).

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