Watchdog Commercial Alert alleges:
P&G, and several smaller buzz marketing specialists named in its complaint, “are perpetuating large-scale deception upon consumers” when people they recruit to promote products by word of mouth don’t disclose that fact, says Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert.
I’ve never considered whether, what is often called “stealth” marketing is illegal but I’ve always found it to me unethical and manipulative. It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds.