Abstract
This article investigates the ramifications of the epidemiological metaphor at the centre of viral marketing. In particular, it explores the tension that exists between the presentation of the viral marketing message as an independent, quasi-organic entity with a threatening, wild potential and the apparently contradictory assertion that it can also be ‘domesticated’ through careful management of its design parameters and infection vectors. The influence of both memetics and the tipping point motif on this depiction is discussed, and the article considers the persuasive advantages of implications of message agency in the marketing of viral marketing itself. This article is the first study of the root metaphors underlying the discourse of viral marketing and serves to contextualise that discourse within the historical influence of memetic theory and the early literature on word-of-mouth marketing, and the more general relationship that marketing continues to have with issues of control.
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