The Word Of Mouth Marketing Association has risen to the challenge of trying to define ethical guidelines by creating The Ethics 20 Questions. The preface is instructive
Remember: Consumers come first, honesty isn't optional, and deception is always exposed.
Given the current ethical climate -- with the Mal-Mart/Edelman mess (which still hasn't been cleared up, has it?) -- and other attempts to tackle these issues in other settings -- like Chris Heuer's Social Media Roundtable on Disclosure -- WOMMA's efforts seem well-timed.
WOMMA was started by and is run by the most un-ethical person I've ever met, Andy Sernovitz. He previously started and ran AIM (Association of Interactive Marketeers) and in that role, shilled for Network Solutions.
He stood up in Congress and denounced my company and an organisation we worked with on behalf of his paymasters. He tried to get my US ceo thrown in jail. You don't get more unethical or more of a shill than that. His aim was to block moves to reform the domain name system which would have had the effect of challenging Network Solutions' monopoly on .com.
You can read the story here http://www.gtld-mou.org/gtld-discuss/mail-archive/05567.html
see Sernovitz's testimony to Congress here
http://www.house.gov/science/sernovitz_9-30.html
and see his history of inventing organisations here
http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc-bin/artread.pl?direction=Current&articlenumber=11331
Posted by: Ivan Pope | October 26, 2006 at 05:35 PM