(Scroll down to skip my rambling and see the trailer for Spike Jonze’s new short.)

If you believe a Wired Magazine article about a crazy-expensive web series you never saw – the future of media is product placement (as laid out in the hilariously titled “Hollywood Has Finally Figured Out How to Make Web Video Pay“).

I kind of don’t buy this for two reasons:

1. People aren’t stupid. Or, at least there’s a threshold to our stupidity. Product placement in a context that’s not overly disruptive to an entertainment experience is deemed to be a worthwhile exchange (for example Mood/L’Oreal/Bluefly as integral parts of every episode of Project Runway – a show about an artform that can’t be separated from commodities.) But, web series as prolonged commercials? Maybe. Maybe, if those commercials are super-fucking-entertaining. But how many cellphone inserts do you think I’ll watch before I click elsewhere? Even if I like a “branded content” webseries – am I going to forward it to a friend?

It all feels a little too much like getting recruited into selling Amway, Tupperware or Avon.

Besides, the stuff of fun entertainment is the stuff that makes advertisers squirm. In the last two weeks, I’ve heard about branded content people having to pull a shot of a girl in a sports bra (a la Brandi Chastain) in a non-sexual context and a shot of a squirt gun that looked like it might be real in a few shots.

So, not only am I supposed to sacrifice the entertainment experience to watch a commercial, I’m supposed to accept that the entertainment will be ludicrously watered-down? Hmmm…

2. Even if you get around people not being stupid – where are you going to distribute your awesome branded content? YouTube is the wild west – maybe you’ll blow out your web series, maybe not. You can hire all kinds of shady click-brokers to get you numbers, but are you going to actually hit the national/international zeitgeist? Most video platforms can only guarantee pretty modest impressions online anyway… So you’re hoping for a windfall, but how do you budget for “hoping for a windfall”?

Also, if your video DOES blow up – as an advertiser – does this mean it’s going to expire (if you’ve bought X number of impressions) or that you’re going to be nickle-and-dimed by a video outlet that underestimated their potential?

What about releasing the files themselves and letting the movie go where it will?

I think this is interesting… Absolut Vodka hired Spike Jonze to make a short film. I’ve found it on Vimeo, and YouTube and even Absolut’s gorgeously designed microsite.

Will it be any good? I don’t know. I’m a huge Spike Jonze fan, and am anti-the anti-hipster backlash against Where the Wild Things Are, etc. It looks interesting. It looks like a real film. It looks like it’s worth half an hour. Will the computer-headed characters sip on Absolut and tonics? Maybe if it’s at a party or bar it’s fine. If not it’s not.

I hope Absolut allows this to be downloaded everywhere. I appreciate that they’re sponsoring a filmmaker that I care about. I like their brand because they have a history of supporting artists in a lot of media. Does it influence my Vodka purchasing decisions? Shit, I don’t know – I don’t buy that much Vodka. I’ve got a bottle of Tito’s in my freezer. But, if I was going to buy Vodka at the Von’s – I’d be game.

Here’s the trailer from YouTube – (Absolut loses points for not letting this be embeded on Vimeo.)

* Making grand proclamations = eating crow. I still think Craig did brilliant work on structure across the short-form/long-form hybrid, but my optimism at “Why $5 Cover will Change Webisodes” is a little embarrassing.