repost

see this comment it in its natural habitat...

I have to agree with you all here, this is an incredibly insulting bit of advertising and the ensuing debate/squabble with the press is an exhausted (if not pointless to begin with) topic. The standout difference I see between something like lonelygirl and a condescending ad such as this is that lonelygirl was conceived from the beginning as an experiment in the then-new realm of web series. It quickly became convoluted, transparent and was one of the first examples of blatant corporate sponsorship on youtube, yes, but there was an undercurrent of irony that made the whole debacle fascinating at the very least. A stupid endeavor like this australian ad is reminiscent of ads from companies that target demographics they think they understand, assuming they can adopt the appropriate slang and convince the populous of their street cred (think car commercials with skateboards). The main thing the advertisers have overlooked here is the fact that many, if not most of us have been youtubing as long as youtube has been around - we collectively invented this style and have watched it become what it is! Did they really think it was going to be easy to fool us? If this backlash has re-proven anything, lets hope it is that the advertising ego is no match for the collective intelligence of a social medium