This is hilarious. An excerpt:
It truly lives up to the hype: Crisp and tangy, refreshing and energizing, it reminds my jaded taste buds how good a soda can be. Sure, I may be a stealth marketer employed by a national conglomerate to imperceptibly push the product in public, but this beverage is so unbelievably great, I'd subliminally market it to perfect strangers for free!
Honestly, this awesome beverage packs such a punch, you'd practically have to pay me not to pretend to talk about it on my cell phone when I'm in earshot of consumers in the coveted 17-34 demographic.
via Brand Autopsy
I saw one of these so-called buzz marketing gurus on TV a month ago. He was making the same claims as the Onion piece–but seriously. My only question is what sort of an idiot rushes to buy something he overheard a stranger raving about into his cellphone? Actually, I have two questions. What sort of an idiot pays for this type of marketing?
The same kind that uses all their VC funding for a superbowl ad.
That depends. An investor friend of mine overheard someone at the airport setting up an insider trade on his cellphone and made a nice little packet of change.