On Hoaxes...

AdLand has a great post about viral hoaxes. In many cases, the aren't many ways to tell the difference between viral marketing and hoaxes. The recent VW suicide bomber spot is a great example. Certainly there are many people who might mistake the effort for a viral marketing push created by VW, and not by a couple art directors trying to get attention for their work.

The list of examples goes on and on. There's the recent Pepsi blog, which turned out to be a hoax. Most recently, the Bryan Adams "Who Ordered Room Service" Valentine's day promotion, which also turned out to be a hoax from a couple guys in NY, just for the heck of it.

As AdLand points out: "The spread of fake virals - which to the end viewer looks exactly the
same as a real viral - ends up threatening the integrity of everything
else."

And they make another point that should be taken seriously... why the need to be so secretive? If marketers were open and honest about their efforts, would it be easier for end users to discern the hoaxes from the real deal? Or is the secrecy some of the appeal?