Hi bandboy, everything your describing is clearly spam. I hate that, but wouldn't concider it viral marketing. Viral marketing has nothing to do with a company selling anything, it's more like networking, only on a theoretically larger scale. I went to this nice quite little place yesterday for lunch, I was only there about a half hour, but within that time I counted 6 people that walked in off the street and went to the cashier guy (who happened to be the owner) trying to sell him whatever. That's the same thing as what you were describing. It's anoying and I HATE it!
Now, take the same owner after work, driving in his car, making phone calls talking with friends, etc., etc. Calls a friend of his and asks if they knew anything about getting his company on the Internet. The guy tells him, yes, go with XYZ company, the hottest new thing in town. Everyones talking about them, etc., etc. Somehow the "xyz company" created a "buz" and got people talking about them. They do no selling, no knocking on doors, no crap phone calls, nothing. It's just word of mouth, only again, theoretically, on a larger scale.