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In their endless quest for authenticity, marketers have latched onto bloggers as their new spokespeople. They're less demanding than celebrities, and far cheaper than copywriters. In this spirit, Bombay Sapphire, a brand of Bacardi Limited, which sold $5 billion worth of booze last year, has recruited bloggers for its Spirit of Exploration website. In exchange for writing paeans about exploration, Bacardi is allowing them to enter a contest, and linking to their blogs. At least Federated Media, the ad network, sold out its bloggers' credibility in exchange for a large Microsoft advertising buy; Bombay Sapphire's ad agency has cut out the middleman and persuaded bloggers to whore themselves out for free. Impressive!