Hey, so did you get a C&D letter from the not-so friendly abercrombie guys yet? Photopia did after all. :)

Well, a "Search Opera" isn't a bad idea to sell a search engine, not bad at all but maybe I just like the phrase "search opera". ;)
Now, using other brands virals, that is a little odd, the David Bernal breakdancing is just a great clip but the Dog Judo sells Virgin Mobile phones.... Did the advertisers like Virgin chip in to have their fun virals be part of this search opera? Seems likely, and is not a bad idea......

Why Maureen felt the need to remove her own posting is a mystery... I didn't see anything wrong with it.

Yep, you'e right Caff, the Napster one crossed my mind as well, that's a good example too.

Isn't it quite scary though? Not that we assume stuff (a lot of people assume too much trust me), but that like you say - we can't assume anything any more. What with people chatting us up in bars just to namedrop a mineral water, with pre-teen girls sleep over parties actually being focus groups, with actual fake ads and ads made by fans (that apple one), with teasers being ten million times as cryptic as they ever were just to cut through the clutter, with average Joe's cynism radar turned up to the max... Yeah, it's all making me a bit dizzy to be honest.

In a way it has been done, a few years back when NYC adgrunt EricR tipped us to Nissan's "Urban" Fakeout, where all these streetposters would be "vandalized" by some spraypainting fiend by the moniker ElectricMoyo.com. Of course, ElectricMojo was just another part of the Nissan campaign.

Then there was the cool Nike vandalized bus stops recently, Is it advertising or is it graffiti? which is simlar and amusing, and Levis 501 used the street art language to make a full street art campaign Levi's 501 - ads as graffiti part two!, but thats using the street art language as the style of advertising..... And maybe that's not exactly what you meant? Close though, right?