Ben McIlwain ("Cyde Weys") wrote:

And as for NPOV articles ... if someone is being paid to write articles on these businesses, it isn't going to be NPOV, but it's going to be POV in a way that you could only establish it as such if you were intimately familiar with the subject matter, or were prepared to do lots of research. That's why we have the general prohibition against publicity articles; they tend not to be NPOV, and even when they do appear to be, they likely aren't.

Ben, I just got off the phone with a potential client. They have this awesome promotional idea that is going to BLOW AWAY all of their previous marketing efforts, including their 2004 Super Bowl ad campaign. This is the campaign to end all publicity campaigns. It's no wonder nobody's ever thought of it before, because it is pure genius. Here's their plan...

They're going to have MyWikiBiz cook up this amazingly scripted article in Wikipedia. Every word is going to be spelled correctly, and all the Wiki syntax is going to be ship-shape. It's going to include some incredible information that is sure to mesmerize consumers across the face of the Earth. We're talking stuff like IDENTIFYING THE CEO of the company, and maybe even LISTING THE CHAIRMAN's name. Not only that, but MyWikiBiz will cite the YEAR THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED. Wait, there's more -- the types of products that the company sells will be LISTED FOR ALL TO SEE, with internal Wikipedia links to those classes of products. Still with me? Just as buyers are falling out of their seats to scramble to this company's headquarters to try to execute a leveraged buyout, we will dumbfound them all, by LISTING THE COMPANY'S STOCK TICKER SYMBOL. Oh. My. God. There will be a bull market frenzy that will put the dot-com bubble to shame, all thanks to Wikipedia.

Try not to break down in a fit of consumer ECSTASY, when I reveal the coup de grace... That's right, we'll finish it all off with an EXTERNAL LINK to the company's HOMEPAGE.

Somebody shut us down, before we can carry out this master plan of marketing.

And somebody speedy delete the article on Coca-Cola, too. There's a line in there about "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" as being "widely considered one of the best advertising campaigns in history" -- with no reference cited.

-- Gregory Kohs