Short story: Can WOM go too far?

"But to talk to people and secretly be trying to sell them something--isn't that, I don't know, unethical? Surely you agree that it's completely out of order."

"He didn't ask us to buy anything. He gave us free drinks."

"I know, but the point was to get us to buy something later on. That particular brand. We generate buzz. We recommend it to our friends, it becomes hip, blah-blah-blah."

"He should have given me image approval. Look at my chin! I'm going to have words next time I see him."

From the short story 'Raj, Bohemian', by Hari Kunzru. It's not often you get social commentary, marketing issues, and literary value blending quite so well in one piece.

Kunzru puts us right into the head of someone who suddenly realises all his social interactions, even the most intimate, have been infiltrated by WOM. And before long, he just can't take it anymore.

I can't help but sympathise with the narrator, whose name we never learn (let me know if you find a reference to it). All that 'power' I have to customise and choose and sell products and services can sometimes just make me feel like a tool.
 

'But there must come a time when you're allowed to stop being a consumer. There has to be some respite from all that choosing, a time, well, just to be.'

What implications these musings have for B2B is unclear. If we B2B folk participate in or draw others into a WOM campaign, everyone's well aware of the business implications/context.

Or are they? Is it possible for us to overstep a personal boundary in the midst of all the networking and social media interfacing, or is everyone fair game as a potential WOM conscript?

Anyway, Hari Kunzru is a major British writer you may quite enjoy, and you can read the whole story for free on The New Yorker website. I think the ending is...realistic.

PS: Big Phony is a singer-songwriter who can be found here.