New-style ads on social networks

Can your kid tell the difference between content and advertising? It's getting harder to. Social-networking is moving advertising way beyond banner ads, CNET reports. Advertisers now have profiles just like people do – users now interact with ads and bots posing as their favorite celebrity or even a "real person" just like them. "For example, Wendy's [burgers] has a profile page for a character named 'Smart,' a 28-year-old male from New York whose interests include Angelina Jolie, hip-hop music, movies and Wendy's Bacon Mushroom Melt. In the character's 'about me' section, it says, 'it takes flair to be square. Do a square burger at Wendy's and do what tastes right!' Smart has more than 80,000 friends" Rule No. 1: Avoid adding anyone to your Friends list who has 80,000 friends! Probably most teen MySpace users have internalized that rule, but it would make for a great dinner-table conversation to ask them what they think of, say, Paris Hilton's profile or Burger King's – if they have any appeal whatsoever. One thing's for sure, this kind of advertising's growing. CNET says "a report issued last week estimates that US advertising in social networks like MySpace will leap to $1.8 billion in four years, up more than 500% from $280 million in 2006." Check out the Washington Post on how art and opinion (and marketing) are getting mashed up.