Viral does not mean disease

Another viral success: one red paperclip.

In short, David MacDonald, a Canadian blogger, started with a red paperclip and a goal: to trade the paperclip for a house. As David Pogue of The New York Times, writes:

"Oh, not in a single trade; that would be ridiculous. No, instead, he began by trading it for a fish-shaped pen. He traded that for an E.T. doorknob. And traded that… and so on. Finally, this week—14 trades later—he actually got a real house...Drat—another brilliant, Internet-based get-rich-smart scheme, and I didn’t think of it first."

Of course, the PR executive in me has already started thinking about how I can apply the next hottest thing in viral tactics to my consumer "web 2.0" (yes, I know, cliched terminology) client accounts.