In the digital world, the most effective advertising is not always advertising in the traditional sense. Instead of buying ad space or time on a Web site, many marketers prefer to build their own sites or mobile applications or to promote their brands using social media, encouraging consumers to spread the word.While some of this activity remains unregulated, prompting concerns that the Internet is a haven for misleading or unscrupulous marketing, with brand owners doing things they would not dream of doing offline, the loopholes that allow this double standard are slowly closing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/business/media/06cach.html