In a sense you must be right - marketing is marketing and it's all, as they say, about lying to people, fogging their minds and getting them to do things.
Viral marketing, though, is pernicious in a way regular marketing is not: it's astroturf, which is a lie on top of a lie - it seems to come from below, from the grassroots, from "the fans," when it really doesn't - either the grassroots aspect is wholly faked or the studio is simply using the fans as a culture medium for a marketing script that has already been written. I mean, people were under the illusion that they had some sort of effect on the way that narrative played out, that they had some sort of 'ownership' over the movie, but that was just a lie. Then the 'fans' worked on behalf of that lie, unpaid, in the apparent illusion that this was actually a product of the culture, rather than the culture industry. It's rather sad, when you look at it that way.
Of course, the difference between this sort of viral marketing and what we regularly refer to as 'fandom' - for example, my FL is full of people wailing about that Stargate TV show today - is now impossible to pin down. Which sucks for fans, because they're selling their souls to the culture industry for an illusion of participation. I think the erosion of that distinction is the fault of viral marketing, actually - there is no longer any distinction to be made between marketing, fandom, and 'indie cred.' These terms all mean the same thing now. And that's a calamity that was imposed from above.
Re: Hey, Isn't Anyone Going to Encourage His Self Destruction?
Viral marketing, though, is pernicious in a way regular marketing is not: it's astroturf, which is a lie on top of a lie - it seems to come from below, from the grassroots, from "the fans," when it really doesn't - either the grassroots aspect is wholly faked or the studio is simply using the fans as a culture medium for a marketing script that has already been written. I mean, people were under the illusion that they had some sort of effect on the way that narrative played out, that they had some sort of 'ownership' over the movie, but that was just a lie. Then the 'fans' worked on behalf of that lie, unpaid, in the apparent illusion that this was actually a product of the culture, rather than the culture industry. It's rather sad, when you look at it that way.
Of course, the difference between this sort of viral marketing and what we regularly refer to as 'fandom' - for example, my FL is full of people wailing about that Stargate TV show today - is now impossible to pin down. Which sucks for fans, because they're selling their souls to the culture industry for an illusion of participation. I think the erosion of that distinction is the fault of viral marketing, actually - there is no longer any distinction to be made between marketing, fandom, and 'indie cred.' These terms all mean the same thing now. And that's a calamity that was imposed from above.