We’ve reached a turning point in Sell Side history. We have become selling assets. When did it begin? Pretty much around the dawn of the new century, when a different species of Sell Side snoop started sidling up to us in bars, chatting us up at our kids’ playground, striking up conversations as we sat there minding our own business at Starbucks. Chance encounters? Maybe, maybe not. I can remember reading a spate of stories back then, about how the person-to-person exchange of information was Topic A at Sell Side strategic retreats. In 2001, an issue of Business Week reported on what it termed “the Summer of Buzz”. It described how we might be strolling down to the dry cleaner when a “sleek, impossibly attractive motorbiker” pulled over to ask directions. We thought we were just being polite when we complimented her on that powder blue Vespa, but in response she pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down the name and location of the nearest Vespa “boutique.” Or, maybe we were simply watering our roses when a member of a neighborhood “mom squad” stopped to offer – for free! — a string of Hebrew National hot dogs to throw on our backyard Weber. Or, if we had a grade-school child in the house, we may have been unaware that a fifth-grade “secret agent”, possibly our kid’s best friend, had been “deputized” by Hasbro to infect our little boy or girl with an aching desire for a new P-O-X device, a much hyped attempt to marry Pokémon trading cards with handheld gadgetry.

Incidents such as these were on the rise, according to Business Week and elsewhere. Whether pushing dungarees or cars or Guinness Stout or Cheer laundry detergent, Sell Siders had warmed to the idea that word-of-mouth – the combined power of diaphragm, lungs, and trachea, when overlaid with the power of suggestion – could be weaponized. A pretentious term came into play: “diffusion marketing,” otherwise known as “buzz”. Buzz: More powerful than a television commercial. Faster than a speeding sales promotion. Able to leap over tall objections – “I can’t afford it!” “I don’t need it!” – in a single bound….

So, is this where the Sell Side ends? With you?

The grand palazzos on the Ladies’ Mile are history. The suburban mall is dead or dying. The S-E-X in the ice cubes melted away decades ago. Advertising doesn’t work the way it used to. But consumer product reviews, your I-like-its/ I-don’t-like-its, are ubiquitous: Amazon, iTunes, TripAdvisor, Chowhound, the list is endless. A couple of years ago Petco retained a firm to figure out how best to solicit consumer comments on its online offerings. Then it pooper-scooped up customer favorites into a “Top Rated” category, awarding stars in the form of paws. The company’s president was immensely pleased with the results, boasting to the New York Times that Petco had created a “shopping experience that’s driven by the voice of other shoppers.” And the reason for this? “Consumers will trust the voice of another customer before they trust the retailer or manufacturer,” he said, wagging his own tail about how shoppers spend 35 percent more when sniffing goods on the Top Rated pages than when just clicking here and there.

The latest Jonathan Kellerman novel, the new Andrew Bird release, the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi, the AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker, Olay Definity Pore Redefining Scrub — thumbs up or thumbs down? According to them, Sell Side retailers and their consultants along for the ride, you are the decider, the game changer, dead smack in the middle of the action.

So, does this make you you, or does this make you them – and whose side are you on, anyway?