First Google smacks down PayPerPost and now comes the FTC

[ Note: please play "Happy Days Are Here Again!!!" while reading this post. ]

From the WashPost today:

• “The Federal Trade Commission yesterday said that companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships.”

Deception in marketing–despite the *joke* title of Seth Godin’s famous book–is not only unethical it can also be illegal.

As I mentioned in my non-stop ridding of PayPerScamPost and their evil plan to “let the market work out” their deception issues, the FTC is stepping in. This, a day after Google said they would ding blogs from their index who participated in such schemes.

It’s game waaaaaaaaaay over for PayPerPost. Google is smacking them down, and the FTC is on their doorstep. They will clean up their act now, and their “let the marketplace give us our ethics” has now happened. The industry (in the form of bloggers and Google) and the government (in the form of the FTC) have told PayPerPost clearly: STOP ENABLING DECEPTION.

A lot of folks, many of whom were either very young or very young to the media game, gave me a hard time about ridding of PayPerPost. They couldn’t understand why I felt the need to confront them. Well, now Google and the FTC are standing next to me so I have to ask: do you get it now??!?!