Hidden Advertising -- Must be stopped out in the open! All advertising is good advertising, from the point-of-view of the sponsor. But from the consumer's point-of-view, this is not the case. True, advertisers bring consumers popular television shows and have a right to put their opinions 'out there' in the common marketplace. All Americans have a right to free discourse and a platform in the common media community. However, a new phenomenon of secret sponsorship, where a product is promoted without the consumer's awareness that he or she is watching, seeing, or most insidiously 'experiencing' an advertisement ploy, must be stopped. Although the first amendment may protect such advertising, consumers can help by refusing to participate in the process and stop buying products produced by companies that make use of this practice. Also, advertisers, by eschewing secret advertising will ultimately create a climate of greater trust between consumers and advertisers by eschewing secret advertising.

What is secret advertising? The New York Times calls such advertising "hidden (in plan sight)" persuasion. Consider a few scenes from the life of a hidden persuader named Gabriella. "At one grocery store, Gabriella asked a manager why there was no Al Fresco sausage available. At a second store, she dropped a card touting the product into the suggestion box. At a third, she talked a stranger into buying a package. She suggested that the organizers of a neighborhood picnic serve Al Fresco." (Walker, 2004) Gabriella is not a paid sponsor. Rather, she is a voluntary recruit of the Al Fresco Company. But it was Al Fresco and its hired advertising agency that encouraged her to do all of these things. She did not promote the product in such an aggressive manner by her own free will, by design, rather her tactics were 'suggested' for her by the company.

Yes, a growing number of marketers organizing veritable armies of hired "trendsetters" or "influencers" or "street teams" to execute "seeding programs," "viral marketing,"...

There is even a Word of Mouth Marketing Association. (Walker, 2004)
Thus Gabriella of the New York Times magazine article and the rest of the sausage agents are not paid flunkies trying to manipulate Main Street Americans; they are Main Street Americans, who agree to give of their time to promote a product, simply to become a part of a media phenomena. "Given that we are a nation of busy, overworked people who in poll after poll claim to be sick of advertisers jumping out at us from all directions, the number of people willing to help market products they had previously never heard of, for no money at all, is puzzling to say the least." (Walker, 2004) Puzzling, or a sad commentary on how being a trendsetter is becoming important in all areas of the country. But when the public becomes more aware of secret advertising, a climate of mistrust between advertisers and consumers is created that hurts both sides of the media equation.

Gabriela of the New York Times wishes to be part of a media phenomenon. A nay saying voice might contend that is her business -- who cares if she chooses to volunteer for pork sausage rather than for poor children? But because her efforts are apparently altruistic, people are more apt to trust her opinion than a conventional advertisement they see during a television program or hear over the radio, say critics. Gabriella targets her friends, not the general public. She appears to be an independent person, expressing her opinion. The company profiting from the product's sales shapes the way in which she expresses it and the cunning methods she uses to promote the product.

The Internet provides another source of such secrete advertising, as "the growing confidence in Web advertising, which climbed sharply this year on the strength of keyword search advertising and rich media ads…