Annoyed with the whole business of the Zipatoni PSP-advocating viral blog? Well, we have good news for you. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently took their own stand on the issue of viral marketers, and it's definitely not on the side of the virals.

In a recent edition of the Washington Post, the Commission is quoted as saying that viral marketers should disclose their relationship with the companies they are marketing for. Good news to many people who don't like being deceived by others, and it definitely helps keep us from warning people about another weird Sony advertising plan for their handheld, for instance.

In this day and age though, virals happen often enough, but there are many instances when it seems less like subtle advertising and more like duping people into following a particular opinion, which in this case happens to be the viral marketer's.

In good viral ads, we're amused because the viral either makes it very clear that it's a viral (think of flash games made to advertise a show or a product) or doesn't directly reference the product it's advertising, making it more of a funny Easter egg for fans than an annoyance (The "I Love Bees" Halo campaign). In bad ones, internet sleuths will track your IP down, find out what the deal is, and make sure you're blacklisted among the internet-savvy for offenses to good taste.

With proper implementation by the FTC, we may just see an end to bad rapping and viral graffiti campaigns forever. Of course, whoever was rapping in the PSP viral video we got from YouTube will probably be haunted by the ghosts of really crappy choices till the day he dies.