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EU says no to viral marketing |
Listed in: Wii, PS3, MMORPG, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PC Gaming Tags: European Union
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It is the nature of every company to do everything in its power to promote its product. It's only logical, when you really think about it. With that said, can we ask you one thing? What do you think about viral marketing?Before we proceed, we guess it is only proper to provide a definition of this practice for the purposes of discussion. As applied to the gaming industry: Viral marketing is a kind of advertising wherein a major company promotes its own product by coming up with a seemingly independent media like a blog and/o other amateur websites.
There. At the surface, it seems like a normal and harmless practice - the companies are just trying to create a word-of-mouth snowball effect to maximize profit. However, we have to take into consideration that these people are journalists as well. This practice is bordering on being unethical because how can one be objective if he's being paid by his news source?
This is the exact same reasoning given by the European Union as it announced plans to block and ban viral marketers or what it refers to as sock-puppets. The law, which states that it is illegal for companies to self-promote through websites which give the illusion of independence, will take effect on December 31, 2007.
The said law also covers people with vested interests reviewing their own products on various sites such as Amazon. Those who will violate the new directive will be named and shamed by Trading Standards or taken to court.
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