Fake Blogger Disappears In Poof Of Logic

After an emotional weblog post about reaching his estranged father after nearly 30 years, BBC Radio's Tom Coates received a heartfelt message in the comment thread from one Barry Scott. A long cyber-drive later, Coates learned that commenter Barry Scott didn't really exist, and this was a tale of bad e-marketing judgment. Coates said the emotional Cillit Bang is a cleaning product, apparently heavily advertised in the UK. The name Barry Scott wouldn't be a terribly uncommon name, except that the link provided with the comment led to http://www.barryscott.blogs.com, a "barely disguised viral marketing" site that has since been taken down after the ensuing bad press. Bizarre as it is, a link and a name aren't exactly proof of guilt. This led Coates to an Blogoriented, a company (or possibly a hoax) openly recruiting writers for a type of new outsourcing concept. The idea is to create several fictional characters (unadvertised of course) posing as teenagers, college professors, or other "standard Americans," and have them work products into their everyday blog life. It would appear the idea is catching on. Thanks to Erin at SearchViews.com for the tip off.