Overstock.com and Verisign Try a Little Subtlety

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a great new site. It was witty, well designed, and filled with hilarious videos. Another week went by before I realized it was created by Overstock.com and Verisign.
The site is called NoMoreAbandonedShoppingcarts.com and it's well worth a look. The entire site is based upon a cleverly created "Shopping cart whisperer" and users are encouraged to send in pictures of shopping carts where they don't belong. The shopping cart whisperer laments that "perfectly good shopping carts" seem to be everywhere and coaxes them back to their respective cart corrals. It takes some digging to find out who is behind the site and it is so subtly branded that it hardly seems "ad-like".
the ad, however, is there. One page on the site talks about all of the extra carts found on the streets now that people can comfortably purchase things online securely with Verisign.
Since then, I have noticed several other companies trying this approach and it's actually quite genius. For example, would you join a Facebook page for Verisign? Well, Mr. Cart Whisperer has plenty of friends on Myspace and Facebook and 65 people have sent in pictures. Verisign has effectively engaged with it's audience using social media and believe me, if a secure signature company like Verisign can use it, anyone can.