Sick World is Spreading the Virus

I am in my tobacco control advocate mode these days. Blame it on my SLR on tobacco industry interference and on the PVO forum on tobacco control and human rights held last Wednesday.  That’s why it’s just too tempting for me to pass up an opportunity to publicly air my ire and contempt for the tobacco industry – something I am usually reluctant to do in Facebook, Multiply, and other networking sites that I visit, at the risk of being branded a “nerd”.

I first heard of the term “viral marketing” from a blockmate of mine who recently got back from a tobacco control forum in Bangkok. After our talk, I went to the library, got my hand on the nearest and most accessible repository of knowledge I know – Wikipedia J and typed the term in the search bar. It turned out that I already knew and understood what the practice was, it’s just that I didn’t know that there’s a specific term for it.

Really, the tobacco industry has got to be one of the most innovative, resourceful, and probably hippest lines of trade around. They always manage to adapt to whatever new process, technology, or trend is available. With the advent of a multitude of laws banning tobacco advertisement and promotion, they had to be more discreet and prudent. Hence, they have turned their sights on the most “free” medium of communication around – the www. That’s why it’s no surprise that they have managed to exploit viral marketing as a tool to promote their evil products, in violation of the ad ban laws.

It’s quite ingenious, actually. Like conventional forms of advertising, viral marketing in the internet is just as potentially far-reaching. Moreover, it could be less costly since the actual “marketing” is done not really by the product owner or manufacturer, but by common users who find the “ad” interesting. And precisely because the transference is done mostly by word of mouth, it is hard to trace the originator of these ads. And even if the authorities do eventually find the source of the “advertisement”, I bet it would be extremely difficult to link said person or entity to a tobacco company.

But I guess the first problem that policy-makers and enforcers have to confront is how to identify these “ads”. How do you differentiate an innocent user-made video or creation from a marketing device purposely set up by commercial businesses? And then, how are they going to enforce it? Is it possible for them to strike down each and every video and placement in the net that show tobacco products or in any way promote tobacco use?  Perhaps until such time that the authorities figure out a way to effectively regulate the www and monitor the acts of its users, issues such as this will constantly surface every now and then. But then again, I am quite reluctant to espouse an overly restrained cyberworld, the dangers of which I do not want to contemplate, for it could mean that I might not be able to write articles like this in the future.

Jenny T. Paguntalan

2000-33372

Blog1