Ford made mistakes in social media marketing. Wal-Mart and Sony set out to deliberately deceive the public with fake blogs (flogs) that were supposedly written by customers.

When it comes to blogging, nobody talks the blah-blah-blog talk like Edelman Public Relations. But Edelman has been caught -- twice -- in unethical and entirely dumb fake Wal-Mart blog (flog) scandals. And, immediately, both bloggers and mainstream media outed them.

Wal-Mart's first flog was a folksy blog called Wal-Marting Across America. It featured the journey of Laura and Jim, a couple on their maiden trip in an RV (recreational vehicle), capturing stories of their trip from Las Vegas to Georgia, during which they parked their RV in friendly Wal-Mart's parking lots.

But they weren't customers. They were writers being paid to blog about how nice Wal-Mart is. Earlier, Edelman enlisted right-wing bloggers to whitewash Wal-Mart's tarnished reputation. And later, they were behind two more Wal-Mart flogs.

One fake blog appeared on the homepage of Working Families for Wal-Mart, the allegedly grassroots advocacy group formed by Edelman last December, which is "committed to fostering open and honest dialogue...that conveys the positive contributions of Wal-Mart to working families." The second fake blog was on WFWM's subsidiary site Paid Critics.

Working Families for Wal-Mart

Edelman initially blamed the blogs on junior account executives who took it upon themselves to mount these campaigns. But bloggers jumped on them, including Hugh Macleod at gapingvoid.com, who published this cartoon poking fun at Edelman.

A blogger's interpretation