We were checking out this old-school article on the "Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing" and it occurred to us that, in his own way, John Mark Karr was a Harvard Business School case study for attention-seeking perves everywhere.

A successful viral campaign:

1. Gives away valuable products and services.
2. Provides for effortless transfer to others.
3. Scales easily from small to very large.
4. Exploits common motivations and behaviors.
5. Utilizes existing communication networks.
6. Takes advantage of others' resources.

In Karr's case, his "valuable service" was providing a confession. The media took care of the rest -- providing effortless transfer, scaling from Thailand to the world, exploiting our basest motivations, utilizing every communication network on the planet, and taking advantage of resources that could have been used to cover real stories that affect our lives.

Congratulations to all of us.