Subliminal advertising

Take a close look at these people -- they look like normal, everyday people going about their own business.  They are supposed to.

But they aren't -- they are going about someone else's business.  For pay.  They are "agents."

Consider some of the recent activities of Gabriella:

At one grocery store, Gabriella asked a manager why there was no Al Fresco sausage available. At a second store, she dropped a card touting the product into the suggestion box. At a third, she talked a stranger into buying a package. She suggested that the organizers of a neighborhood picnic serve Al Fresco. She took some to a friend's house for dinner ... .   Talking to another friend whom she had already converted into an Al Fresco customer, she noted that the product is ''not just for barbecues'' and would be good at breakfast too. She even wrote to a local priest known for his interest in Italian food, suggesting a recipe for Tuscan white-bean soup that included Al Fresco sausage. The priest wrote back to say he'd give it a try.

Gabriella loves Al Fresco sausage, she says.  But she isn't recommending it to friends and acquaintances just because it's good; she's also doing it because it is part of her job.

She was part of an advertising campaign organized by BzzAgent, a small, three-year-old company that "advertises" products by having a lot of individuals bring it up in the course of their daily activities with associates:  take Al Fresco to the neighborhood block party, to the office potluck, ask your grocer to please start stocking it.  These campaigns are the starter-kits for good word-of-mouth campaigns that have all the appearances of a natural ground-swell of popularity.

Read the whole article so you can be more aware when your brother-in-law suddenly starts bringing a new kind of ketchup to all the family get-togethers.  Maybe he's been "bought."