"Viral Marketing"

You'd think that with the dot-bomb dot-bombed and all, people would begin to understand the difference between a realistic marketing plan (you know, the kind with an initial study, a schedule, a budget, and so forth) and one which could most charitably be described as emanating from a glass pipe.

However, as recently as last week (it's late September of 2001 as I write), a friend of mine seriously proposed using "viral marketing" as a strategy to promote something she wanted to do. I've used a little indirection here in order to protect the guilty, so...does anybody still believe that you can get something (marketing) for nothing (a cleverly designed self-replicating meme)? If so, just exactly what are the principles of memetic engineering, and why haven't we heard all about it? If it really is engineering, how is it quantified and tested? How does one do performance metrics?

I'm leaving a lot of questions unanswered, echoing like a lifeless conference room full of Aeron chairs. And I guess that's pretty much the point.