I'm an open book -- at least now I am . . .

thanks to Kami Huyse, APR. (For the next couple days, my main PR blogging site will be down due to server issues, so I'm posting here at my "back up" blog for now.)

So, the game is for me to state five things you don't know about me? I could go with Todd's "five things" approach, but . . . . well, maybe I might. So, here we go:

1. My wife and I are expecting our fourth child. We thought we were done with three -- two boys and a girl, ages 8, 5 and 3 -- but guess God had other plans. (Okay, we were involved with the outcome as well, but there's more to it than that. And, it's stuff you probably don't want to know.)
2. In high school, among the flattering and not-so-flattering nicknames I had were Larry Bird (I was much blonder then; but didn't have any nears the basketball talent) and Shaggy.
3. I've seen The Wiggles live in concert at least four times . . . can sing a pretty mean (and awful) "fruit salad." Before my daughter was born, my wife and our two sons even dressed like the Wiggles for one concert trip. (I was Murray.)
4. I'm balding (but at least I have more hair at this age than my older brother did!).
5. I was a newspaper journalist for the first four plus years of my working career.

Now, let's see if Peter Shankman, Bob LeDrew, John Guifoil, the good folks at BlogWorks and Sherrilynne Starkie have played this game yet?

Fake blogs are fine . . .

if we know they're fake.

B.L. Ochman doesn't agree, though, BTW, thanks to her blogging about the Hotel Campari campaign (promoting Italian liquor). Apparently, MRM Worldwide -- the agency -- has set up fake profiles on Flickr, MySpace and YouTube in conjunction with the campaign. (See Richard MacManus for details.)

Ochman writes:

I think this campaign is just as unethical as Wal-mart and other flogs. And that it abuses the trust upon which social media is built. What do you think?

The Edelman/Wal-Mart fake blogs were purposefully deceitful. Intended to look like a grass-roots, genuine effort. That was wrong.

However, unlike Edelman/Wal-Mart, we know from the get-go the Hotel Campari blog and the social media profiles are fake. If a blog is upfront, fake is fine. It makes it into a game. That's what many social networking sites are about anyway -- entertainment.

If a company wants to try to sell me along the way, that's fine. Transparently fake is fine.

Just look at John Tucker or Borat. Those are obviously fictional characters set up on MySpace to promote a movie. (Disclosure: Borat is a friend.)

So, go ahead and set up fake blogs and social profiles. Involve us. Just make damn well sure we know it's fake.
-- Mike