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Comment by bpicolo | Hacker News Reader

That's just standard marketing. Don't know why we need the word "stealth". There are tons of youtube channels with marketing. (See every make-up vlogger ever).

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Exactly. Why the need for "stealth" if what they are doing is "normal"? It's because they're trying to make people believe Xbox One is more popular than it really is, and that the comments are really "natural" (when they aren't).

I find it that quite unethical. It's no different than paying Reddit commenters for mentioning it.

" It's because they're trying to make people believe Xbox One is more popular than it really is"

Ignoring the fact that the Xbox One has been selling great, isn't that more or less the point of marketing? Make a product seem popular, generate buzz, make money?

In the dim and distant past marketing was about telling people why your product was good, not convincing them it's popular.

You may want to let the diamond people know about that... exactly how far in the past are we going... I'm pretty sure marketing has always been about moving product for the lowest cost possible.

The whole point is kinda for people to review Xbox one things, i.e. tell them about things that are good. It's not about trying to convince people it's popular.

And then they realized how herd mentality works and how it's much more profitable and efficient then actually making people think. In this, marketing is the ultimate exploiter of our flaws...

It seems like you don't know much about marketing, so best refrain to make such statements.

You really see no problem with astroturfing? (Or is that your job? :-) )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

Edit: I am a bit shocked to see so many people (well, accounts) arguing astroturfing is OK, it used to be despised and big news when Microsoft did it then. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing#Incidents I will assume that is more astroturfing. Otherwise, goodbye Internet as an information source....

Perhaps the poster is capable of evaluating products on their own, or paying for independent reviews.

If you're dumb enough to believe 'free' advice you pretty much deserve what you get. Remember when the service is free, the product is you.

Our entire society is astroturfed whats possibly more sad is that people can get genuinely caught up in these campaigns and start spreading them for free.

I did not say I do not have a problem with the marketing agreement Microsoft has set up. Be that as it may, I also understand this type of marketing is not solely taken advantage of by Microsoft. I don't anyone is arguing it's ok. People are pointing out that Microsoft is by no means the first company to take advantage of this type of marketing.

They're not saying you have to lie about the Xbox, they're just saying to feature it. Nothing unethical about it.

Maybe you don't have to explicitly lie, but "video creators "may not say anything negative or disparaging about Machinima, Xbox One, or any of its Games"

I'm just thinking here in practical terms. If these bloggers/youtubers were in fact companies/portals, everybody would be fine with it. In this regard, I don't see how Microsoft can be blamed for playing the same game the whole marketing industry plays.

No, looking from the "what I expect" perspective, most people expect these bloggers/youtubers to reflect the "opinion of the crowds" and to reflect reality more accurate I guess. In this light, Microsoft's attempt to pay them could be seen as unethical.

Personally I never trusted of these bloggers/youtubers so I'm far from shocked with this news. I expect them to be doing that by the very nature of their "jobs", if not for direct profit from vendors, then for ad-click revenue.

I'd say don't be naive with anything, specially things involving products and revenue.

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