Sign up to sell out: astroturf net marketers

Jed sez: "Faux-grassroots marketing! This isn't exactly a new idea, but I've never seen it done quite this blatantly before. It's an organization that teaches fans of the TV show _Alias_ how to become 'online tastemakers'":

"If you enjoy spending time on the 'Net, you can be part of the ALIAS 'Digital Street Team.' We'd like you to visit newsgroups, message boards, chat-rooms and any other on-line communities to help spread the word about ALIAS. We will guide you through the entire process and let you know where to go to make the buzz happen."

I couldn't tell at first whether this was a grassroots campaign or an underground ad campaign. Then I read a couple of the other pages on the site and discovered that it's run by the Hype Council (http://www.hypecouncil.com/), a company that apparently specializes in this sort of campaign.

Link Discuss (Thanks, Jed!)