Perez Hilton whores Joost

My (recent) favorite gossip blog Perezhilton.com today featured a post not about Britney, Lindsay or Jessica, but about Joost. And the title was "The Most Amazing Thing." A-Who-what?

I was baffled because not only does Joost have NOTHING to do with celeb gossip, but the post clearly seeemed to have been written by the company itself (Joost, not Perez). Why would Joost (and Perez for that matter) do this? It's so not the way to go. The comments about the post speak volumes to this point.

It's one thing to make money through ads, but it's another to take the trust you've built up with your readers and blatantly advertise to them in the form of a post.

Mark, what should they have done?

-Let's make a deal: Perez and Joost could strike a deal for a gossip show featured on Joost. Then the crossover marketing would make sense. He ALWAYS posts dates/times of his onscreen (tv/web/other) appearances. This would fit into his expected blogger behavior.

-Um, make Joost buy an ad like everyone else?!: Even though I think ads on blogs are a complete waste of money, (I never click on blog ads) this honest approach is somehow ok for everyone else in the world. Why not Joost?

-Pimp the content, not the service: If Joost would have said to Perez "Hey, were going to have this new gossip show coming out in August. Here are some clips." And they were good clips (can anyone out-do TMZ?)... maybe a post about that would have made more sense.