Did Nvidia hire an army of message-board sock puppets?

[bargainbloodhound]

I wonder if Nvidia (a maker of PC graphics cards) followed another company's lead and hired dead people 

Nvidia stands accused of hiring online actors to create dozens of personae in online forums, where they won gamers' trust by talking about subjects unrelated to Nvidia's products, and then splurged in an orgy of sock-puppet boosterism of Nvidia's stuff...

full article: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/06/did..._an_a.html


 

I interviewed for a guerilla marketing business in San Francisco that targeted web forums.

    I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in. And regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster.

full article: http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/evil...152874.php

[mandy]

A followup:

I spoke on the phone with Stephanie at AEG after this story broke in an effort to investigate the situation.  She flat-out told me that AEG actively seeks influential members of message boards to approach for membership in their marketing program.  These members are required to sign a NDA about the program’s very existence.  The recent news I was told by a member of this program is that NVIDIA is now offering them 30” widescreen LCDs.  This suggests just how much $$$ is being poured into this new outreach effort.

full article: http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/evil...153036.php

[sneakymagenta]

including the likes of MTV, Court TV, and The Discovery Channel

MTV's awards show always has sock puppet audience members dancing and cheering in front of the stage. Using them on the boards isn't surprising.  heep5:

[xppman]

It's called BUZZ MARKETING

And like it is all the BUZZ like OMG.
(Valley girl impression)....


I truly hope that people are not this stupid.
But then again.  Well we do live in a world where not all
are the brightest lights on the Xmas tree.

Hey I didn't even really know who jaymarie was.

Well I knew but "like" I forgot "like" OK?

[valleygirl]

And like it is all the BUZZ like OMG.
(Valley girl impression)....

So like I'm sitting in the mall the other day and like my friend Buffy says to me "Hey, Val" (my name is Valley, but, like, my friends call me Val), "have you seen this mega-small sock thingy called XPP?" Helloooo, who does she think she's talking to -- Miss Uninformed? It's not like *I* wasn't the one who told her all about the time I caught HER ex-boyfriend GWB making out with that heifer cheerleader last week. Anyway, I told her how I had gone over to XPPs house and asked him to show me this sock stuff. I was like "oh my gawd, only a total dweeb with a microscope could see THAT pair of socks" because it was, like, TOTALLY small. Those socks are like WAY uncool!!!

[regic]

:lol14n:

[xppman]

Good thing the socks are just for emergencies.. like when it is too wet.