A patronizing reply for a cynical post. Seems like a fair trade, to me.
No, I don't think getting the whole community involved in essentially a large scavenger hunt is overdone. I would call it "fun". Marketing and hype producing, but fun none-the-less. Almost like an interactive commercial, where the item isn't revealed until the end.
Which leads me to your next point--no, Microsoft didn't send out phones and coded text messages for Vista. But, they did advertise. And to continue with the Microsoft example, they actually used viral marketing when hyping up their X-Box gaming console--not exactly the most beloved of marketing strategies.
I'm not sure about you, but I'd rather a scavenger hunt than a viral marketing campaign. One seems a bit more "honest" (I use the word loosely, as it is still advertising through the creation of hype--but the main thing is is that the entity creating the hype isn't obfuscated).
