Blogged and Sold

[Commentary] These are the amazing new methods that the persuasion industry has developed. And running behind this wild new world of marketing like a Pomeranian racing for a bullet train, the Federal Trade Commission has now promulgated guidelines that compel celebrities and bloggers and those horror hybrids, blogger-celebrities, to reveal when they are compensated for any association with products. Stealth marketing, direct advertisement and product placement work only on the clueless, and our immersive, hippo-like wallowing in the marketplace serves only to make us resistant to these viral contagions. Because the more we are sold to — and, believe it, we are being pitched every minute — the more immune we are to it all.