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For those still questioning the acquisition of YouTube by Google several months ago, I offer this rationale: Gmail Theater.

With an extremely low budget, paper clips and office supplies-style of puppetry, YouTube viewers are subjected to a four act play of sorts, explaining four benefits of using Gmail.

Entertaining: yes. But it sparks may debates regarding targeted marketing, and social media outlets harboring commercials and advertisers. Everywhere you go on the web, no matter how ‘free’ the viral video clip may be, chances are you will have to watch a 15-30 second commercial first. The cutesy, lo-fi approach from this Google YouTube collaboration totals over four minutes! We would never tolerate that length of time on TV (not even during the much coveted Super Bowl ads) so why is this type of targeted marketing acceptable on the web?

In the world of online marketing and SEO/SEM, this is marketing genius. In the real world of ‘I watch YouTube for cool virals, not commercials’, it’s like clicking on an innocent looking link and being redirected to a porn site. If that’s your thing (!), it wont bother you and you’ll find it entertaining. If it’s not, and it happens often enough, you may take the term ‘going postal’ to a new level not seen since Michael Douglas in Falling Down.

As the internet grows exponentially, the greedy advertisers and seedy SEM link ninjas (yours truly especially) look for new ways to target traffic and give more exposure to our clients. It’s inevitable that the next new thing will be harped on and exploited by all kinds for all purposes. Google paid $1.65 billion for this kind of exposure. Thankfully, we don’t charge as much!

The Aqua Teen Hunger Force debacle this week was guerilla marketing at its best and its worst. I’m sure that while no one expected to get arrested over Moonies, you’ve got to admit this much: you will check out an episode of ATHF just because you must know what all the fuss is about.

That’s the best part. The worst is the arrest of Sean Stevens and Peter Berdovsky; and the subsequent payout TBS will probably have to make – as reported by Reuters.

Although Boston may have overreacted (they were placed in nine cities with no other major panic), clearly there are other ways of spreading the word if you want to market your product.

One way is SEO and online marketing. Aggressive online campaigns could have helped target their demographic, restore interest in past viewers and gain a new audience. The main problem with the guerilla-style Attack of the Mooninites that plagued Boston, is that only the people who already knew what they were, got it. That definitely does not help to gain new viewers if they don’t know what they are looking at. That was until the news crews showed up and the hand cuffs were slapped on. Then everyone knew!