Ford's massive campaign to promote its European model Fiesta ahead of its introduction into the U.S. invades New York City on Friday, but the automaker's social-media blitz has already started.

You've gotta hand it to Ford. Here's how it's promoting its agitprop for Fiesta: "FORD FIESTA AGENTS TEAM WITH GOD'S LOVE WE DELIVER: AGENTS WILL DELIVER MEALS TO LOCAL NYC RESIDENTS THIS FRIDAY"

The unbailed-out automaker — Detroit's Big One — has a "director of social media" now, so what do you expect but "The Fiesta Movement," an ad campaign already plastered on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.

OK, so Ford's social media ad campaign is not as entertaining as the tail-chasing tale of hypocritical adulterer Senator John Ensign on Titter.

In fact, this ad campaign — full of self-referential stuff that makes it sound like a parody of an ad campaign (is it?) — does point to a growing use of social media that's already obvious: a blitz of marketing in which you'll have a hard time distinguishing friend from foe online. Restating the obvious: Any day now, Facebook and its ilk will no longer be referred to as "social media." They'll just be called "media" as more and more advertisers invade what is for now mostly interpersonal space and turn "social" into "marketing."

Ford needs to do something. In case the company itself doesn't mention it, "Ford pins hopes on small car market," as Australia's Manufacturers' Monthly points out. That's actually "small-car market," with the hyphen, although the car market is definitely smaller. In Australia, for example, auto sales are down about 20 percent.

As a preview of Ford's hard-sell campaign over here for the Fiesta, here's the promo material for what it calls "LOCAL FORD FIESTA AGENTS GIVE BACK":

Pretty strange that Ford would use the word "viral" in a campaign that vows to help AIDS victims. But that's what "viral" means these days, as AIDS recedes from the headlines and as even less reputable hucksters than car dealers try to bareback us online to buy their products.