Most people would be disturbed by a picture of a corpse with a toe-tag bearing a good friend's name. But AKQA didn't think gamers would mind. A viral promotion created by AKQA for "Perfect Dark: Zero," a launch title for the Xbox 360, immerses viewers in the world of the game's antihero assassin, Joanna Dark, on a quest for vengeance against the evil corporation dataDyne. The viral campaign allows the sender to rat on a friend or co-worker as an "agent of dataDyne," and Dark promises to "pay them a visit." That visit comes in the form …

Over the last 18 months, marketers have enthused non-stop about the potential of blogs as an ad medium. But when it comes to actually pulling the trigger on ad deals, many online media firms have hesitated to recommend anything more than a trifling investment in blogs.