Current mood:

amused

I read the news today, oh boy.
The BBC news website is a funny old place. I mean you know what to expect from the straight news, but the local stuff, the opinions pieces and the magazine can catch you unawares at times. I read this piece today about the phenomenon of word of mouth advertising, apparently much used in America and now starting over here. What they do is the agency recruits volunteers, sends them free stuff to try out and asks them to share their thoughts with their friends – good or bad. Now the article was written as if this were a very bad thing, as if the advertisers had finally invaded the last bastion – the private conversation, and I could see there point if people were being paid to slip an advert in there, but I talk about stuff all the time. We compare phones, washing powders, uses for mayonnaise... so why would it be different if I was mentioning stuff I’d been sent for free as part of a promotion?

So needless to say I signed up. Here’s a link if you fancy it too.
www.bzzagent.co.uk/go/uk/welcome_tellafriend_uk.jsp .
I wonder if the reporter has also got an account…