Blurring The Lines

the New York Times has written an article about how Wal-Mart is using bloggers to disseminate information in defense of its image, tarnished recently by legislation in Maryland aimed at making the corporate monolith pay more for employee health care.

The problem, evidently, is that many bloggers repeat the Wal-Mart message verbatim without appropriate citation. I agree, that would be the helpful and ethical thing to do. Anyone who takes their reputation seriously should do so.

But other than that, the media has little to complain about. If people are turning to blogs rather than mainstream media for news, it's because the mainstream media is:
a) not interested in the same things people are,
b) not fairly or accurately reporting the news,
c) pushing an agenda that is not shared by the public,
d) too expensive or inconvenient to access, or
e) any of the above.

It's not surprising that Wal-Mart is using this medium to get out its message. In an environment where traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective, it's only a matter of time before something as popular as blogs gets subverted into just another marketing channel. If you've read "Pattern Recognition" by William Gibson, you're aware of much more inventive (or perhaps devious) methods that aren't that much of a stretch. It's only a matter of time before some inventive soul moves us beyond Blogads and begins to blur the lines of traditional ethics.

Wal-Mart, at least, is encouraging bloggers to attribute correctly. Bloggers are under no legal requirement to do so. It's only a matter of time before targeted marketing starts to find its subtle way into blogging like vanilla insinuating its sublime, earthy warmth into the fizzy lusciousness of an ice cold, tongue-tingling Coca Cola.

Now where did that come from?!