The genius of MTV's reality-TV programming is that it's not that real. The Hills itself is — get this — a faux reality show. But will an audience tuning into the passive escapism of The Hills, Pimp My Ride or Laguna Beach really want to go to the effort of logging onto a virtual world? Based on MTV's new advertising campaign, we're guessing the answer is "No." The music television pioneer has taken to airing 30-second TV commercials promoting Virtual Hills, the Second Life-like counterpart of the serialized docusoap. Notice how this machinima spot captures all the wit and charm of the Virtual Hills. So this is a fake real TV ad about the real fake version, online, of a fake real show on TV. Post-post-postmodern genius.

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