Is it live, or is it stealth marketing?

I was browsing NYC's Craigslist, and came upon this. Who the hell is Charles McCarthy, and why does he need my help? It aroused my curiosity, so much so that I found myself getting sucked deeper and deeper into this story of a loser who so desperately wanted to work on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim (and here I am, doing their marketing for them like a dunce -- but I guess I am sort of a fan. It's some of the most creative stuff on television right now, but geez, how hard is it to climb to the top of that pile?) And not only did I read several pages of this guy's blog, but I wound up signing his freakin' petition! (I don't know why it showed up twice!)

In the comments section, I wrote: "See, here's the thing -- the guy's already working for you. He's advertising adult swim all over the place. why, I bet there's people who hadn't even heard of adult swim that need to check it out just because they need to see why this dude needs to work there so friggin' bad. the man just wants to be paid. what do you have to lose? he's so desperate to work there, he'll probably do it for next to nothing!"

I hit post. And then. It. Hit. Me.

I had just been so succesfully, so brilliantly stealth marketed that I had actually enjoyed it. It was advertising as entertainment. While trying to figure out if this loser was for real, (and I am about 97% sure the answer to that is no) I was laughing my ass off at the goofiness of it all.

And I still don't know for sure: was it brilliant stealth marketing? Or is this guy really a loser begging for a cool job? Or is he just someone doing his own brilliant little art project?

It's a little creepy. But a little funny, too. I'm not sure if I've been violated or entertained.

And this after having to pay nine bucks to watch freakin' commercials in a movie theater tonight.

No, you do not have permission to colonize my brain.