Faith + Reason = Truth

Do you know what, exactly, "evangelism" means?  One definition is "missionary zeal, purpose, or activity".  We hear it all the time, both in terms of religious message-spreading and in corporate marketing.  This makes sense:  at dictionary.com there are 2 synonyms listed for evangelism - one is crusade, and the other is propaganda.  "Crusade" has synonyms like "cause" and "movement", while propaganda has "advertising", "hype", "brainwashing", and my favorite, "disinformation", among others.  Yet evangelism can mean either crusade OR propaganda, and it's frequently a combination of the two (see the Iraq War, either side, or Microsoft/Apple, either side).
When we hear of someone being appointed as an Evangelist for a company or product, I think we tend to hear along the lines of propagandist or hypester; yet the person appointed may well view their new role as that of a crusader, with missionary zeal and purpose.  Here's how to avoid this conflict in perception if you're a company:  don't have a paid position of Evangelist whose mission is to sing the gospel of your product or service and engage in hype and/or disinformation to drown out or bury your competitors.  If you're going to pay a person $150k for a year of evangelizing, why not instead give away an additional $150k worth of the product (assuming it's a product you actually believe in the merits of) to people who can influence purchase decisions (bloggers, corporate executives, journalists, talk show hosts, etc.)?  The stipulation would be "you can have this product for your personal use and ownership; all we ask in return is that you say some good things about it if you find it useful, and if not, rather than publicly ripping it to shreds for the entertainment of your constituency, please return it to us with your detailed feedback and recommended improvements and allow us the opportunity to get it right."
I really don't have a problem with corporate evangelists - it would be a dream job for someone who really believed in the company and/or product, and the fact that they are getting paid is just icing on the cake to many of them.  As a consumer or potential business partner, however, I personally would put much more stock in the opinion of someone who isn't drawing their livelihood from saying good things about something, someone who doesn't have a vested interest in the success of something.  If it's your company or product, great - get my attention and ask me to give it a fair shot.  Just don't try to make up my mind for me before I have the facts and experiences in hand to make an accurate assessment.