The Text we Live in

There was an interesting documentary on the national Swedish Television Network tonight. "Varumärkt för livet" (Branded for Life: streamed for those who prata svenska) is about word of mouth advertising or buzzing and 'Brand ambassadors'. Many people are probably already aware of this sort-of-new advertising ecology(I suppose you could say as it is not really a single thing but rather a "landscape" as one of its practitioners states in the doco): I found it interesting as it is one way of describing the networks of text we live in. How do you know that the person you are talking to at the bar is not working when they fill you in on how amazing their new BLAH BLAH is? Or that really nice shirt on that interesting looking character is by who? It really gets fascinating when we meet Julia Frej who is being 'made' into a brand ambassador. The job is about being desired by the target group and then getting them to tune into what you want them to buy. Is anything real?