Street Teamers Get A Free Pass

Has anyone ever leaned next to you at a bar and said something like, "Man, these new barbecue flavored pringles are awesome! You should try them! (This spontaneous personal endorsement was paid for by Proctor and Gamble.)"

Well, if you've ever been street teamed like this, chances are you didn't hear a hypothetical disclaimer like the one in the example. And the Federal Trade Commission ruled yesterday that such disclaimers aren't necessary, although they did reserve the right to require word-of-mouth and buzz-marketing disclaimers in the future. They may or may not look into the question of buzz marketing disclosure on a case by case basis as this type of marketing increases.

Despite the FTC keeping it's options open, yesterday's decision was a victory for the extremely creepy "Word of Mouth Marketing Association," who want their street teamers to be able to shill without any type of federally required disclosure requirements. Meanwhile, the folks at Proctor and Gamble (who have hired hundreds of thousands of teenage "buzz marketers") were dancing in their cubicles.

Here's the letter (pdf) from the Federal Trade Commission on the matter, and the original request (pdf) that a group called Commercial Alert made to the FTC.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm not in favor of the government requiring disclosures on commercial small talk, but I also wouldn't want to government interfering with my right to kill the buzz marketer in question.

Comments

[Nicholas]

Our consumer culture has become a monster from which there is no escape.

[fatty jubbo]

man- all I want is that Pringles conga in the picture!

[Claudio]

Fatty - Were you paid to say that here? I'm just asking.

[Gavin]

Coming from both a marketing and "I hate advertising" point of view, I'd have to say that I'm with the decision of the FTC on this matter. I think it is within the rights of a corporation's free speech ability to make statements such as their product being "awesome" because it's not a statement of fact or really that misleading. I mean, honestly, if an individual can't look at that type of organized event and tell that it is a sponsored occurence, then they are stupid enough to deserve to buy their product.

I'm more concerned with the limiting of speech than I am the ever encroaching advertisements in our world. Plus, they left an option open for other marketing events that might be less obvious, so at least they are acknowledging that it can ultimately be a potential problem. I'm no big fan of the FTC, but I don't see any real reason to get up in arms about this. That is just my two pennies worth of nonsense, though.

[Courtney]

As a blogger and show promoter I have a lot of mixed feelings about this. I'm not getting paid to run around telling strangers how much I love Tullycraft or my No Sweat sneakers or WFMU. I just like stuff, and I talk about stuff I like. It's a great strategy to pay people to say they like your product. I do see a difference between street teamers and leaners however. For instance, a street teamer/product rep last weekend pissed me off when he told me the show I was attending was "put on by {brand name}" when the show was put on by friends of mine who agreed to have the cig rep there in exchange for cash for the bands . I know that's selling out, but that's what happens when your ideas are bigger than your budget (and lower than your moral standards). And not everyone feels the need to psychoanalyze their interaction with a product rep, but there is something wierder if you don't know you're interacting with a rep.

Yet I'm completely charmed by the sign where I get my oil changed:
"If you liked your service, tell a friend, if you had a problem, tell us."

[Trish]

"..if you don't know you're interacting with a rep."

Yeah, really.

And isn't the entire interaction just a whole lotta fraud? What with the design and intent underlying the practice.

[special tommy]

all i know is, i went to a birthday party last saturday and the sweet potato pound cake tasted so good after a swig of the bottle of southern comfort that stuffing my face with cake between southern comfort gurgling telling everybody "fuck! you have to try this! justine, the next time you bake one of these promise me you'll DOUSE it with southern comfort... myumhummnguh... hey man, have you tried this? drink this then take a bite! no, no really, alright fuck you hey, sarah, your cat FARTS you need an air freshener collar or some shit.. have you tried this cake justine made?"

i could have sold a lot of southern comfort at the right bar. now that you mention it, how do i apply for one of these sickening degrading alcohol endorsement campaigns?

oh right -- i'm ugly. I can't get one of those jobs. but i know what to do when an unattainably fetching girl suggests i buy a vanilla stoli white russian... say "got any mac & cheese powder? tell the bartender i want a MOLDSCHLAGER! no wait, have you ever had a bloody mary with beef ramen powder? nah nah... oj and champagne with two klonopin... BARTENDER! Two SCAMOSAS!"

[special tommy]

or come to think of it, the birthday party i was at a few months ago where i was telling this guy who said the new major stars lineup was really great and i was like, wow, i went to see them and i got so excited about how much better they were the bartender threw me out i was spilling beer all over the place... and the SAME GUY comped me the beer i was spilling all over the place!"

and then i was looking at the liquor everybody brought and i picked up the bottle of BRENNIVAN and i was like, who brought THIS? and ended up talking about a trip to finland this guy took and i was like, "I can't drink this, this is... you can't get this anywhere... hide this save it for kim"

what i'm trying to say is, consider the source. suckers are born every minute. if you can't beat them, berate them.

[Vic Perry]

Wasn't there a passage about this in Burroughs' Naked Lunch? Ah, here it is: "An agent is trained to deny his agent identity by asserting his cover story. So why not use psychic jiu-jitsu and go along with him? Suggest that his cover story is his identity and that he has no other. His agent identity becomes unconscious, that is, out of his control; and you can dig it with drugs and hypnosis. You can make a square pringles citizen dorritos with this angle . . . that is, reinforce and second his rejection of normally latent dorrito trends-at the same time depriving him of the great taste of pringles and subjecting him to the zesty taste of dorrito stimulation."

[carman]

If some stranger came up to me at a bar and said "Man, these new barbecue flavored pringles are awesome! You should try them!" I'd probably respond with an unqualified "Get the fuck out of my face". Unless the streetteamer happened to be eye candy.

The shill for the real you. Imagine a requirement to qualify all deceptive speech in bars. "Brandi, I may have lied about myself in hopes that you'd have sex with me tonight."

[Andy Sernovitz]

Ken -

You've got it backwards. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association is the group that STOPS people from paying shills. We are the ones fighting to clean things up. We created the rules for disclosure requirements.

Take a look at the facts: http://www.womma.org/ethics

Andy Sernovitz
CEO
WOMMA

[K.]

Please don't post about WOMMA and these people, they are like internet trolls which we all know not to feed, yes? Feed them, and they'll grow, and overwhelm this blog. And use the delete key, dear station manager, please. Trust me on this one. WOMMA is like the herpes of advertizing.

[Lukas]

Come to think of it, maybe I once nearly fell victim to a shill like this. One time in Hamtramck (one of two cities INSIDE of Detroit, yes, really), being exhausted after a long night of live music, I went to this bar for a last drink, and before I could even order anything, the girl next to me gave me her PBR, saying she "didn't want to drink it anymore". It was still full and she looked nice, so how could I refuse? I should have known better than to try cheap American beer, but at least now I know that PBR tastes like piss. She should have given me Pringles, that would have worked.

[Mark]

Gavin, the issue isn't about sponsored events; it's about salesmen in public spaces posing deceptively as ordinary people. It's a textbook case of deceptive speech, as it achieves its effects through the lie. As such it's not entitled to protection. Other cases involve trespass; as the salesmen go to a private space to pitch products without disclosing to the business owner that they are doing so; there is no right to freely engage in competitive commercial speech in such an environment. It's all up to the business owner whether you're allowed to do so and deceptively pretending to be other than a salesman impacts the business owner's right to control his business. So the deception is harmful to several interests. Further, deceptive speech of this sort would tend to make people even more distrustful and less friendly towards others. There's no reason to allow it. If a person falsely claimed to be a doctor and gave suspect medical advice to drunks at a bar, would his speech be protected? Of course not. So, why this?

[David]

Wow, I'm glad to only white people eat Pringles. (see image)