ad(am)vertising: Shawn Johnson is so cute...the way she flips over A MOVING BOBSLED

Or so a recent viral attempt from Nestle would have you believe:

OK, OK, so there's no way it's real. Not to say the 17-year old Olympic champion (Gold Medal in the '08 Woman's Balance Beam and Silver in the Woman's All Around) couldn't do what this video apparently shows, but obviously no one would let her risk her career to promote Crunch bars. Except apparently American speed-skating champion Apolo Anton Ohno, who is the male in the video that dares her to do it.

The video is meant to promote the Crunch Challenge, which from my limited research appears to be a facebook application/game meant to get people excited about the Olympics and their natural counterpart, Nestle Crunch bars.

Sure, I'll sign up for it, of course on team Crispies, because:

Shawn Johnson is the captain of that team. She's cute and I was rooting for her to beat Nastia Liukin all of Summer '08
I didn't see Apollo hold up his end and skate down the bobsled course
The Summer Olympics are approximately 50 times more exciting than their Winter counterpart

The idea of a celebrity jumping over something ridiculous to promote a product isn't new, and I'm not even thinking back to the days of MJ. Less than two years ago, Kobe Bryant supposedly used his Nike Hyperdunks to jump over a speeding Aston Martin:

The Black Mamba has also used the shoes to leap past a pool of snakes, rape allegations, and the entire Toronto Raptors team.

Real or embellished, I think the somewhat ambiguous viral video can certainly help your cause, especially when you're using generally well-liked celebrities. They generate a lot of free buzz, and you have to imagine the people are happy to do it, especially people like Apolo Anton Ohno, who was just beside himself because the people at Nestle actually knew who he was.

By the way, a nice after-Christmas gift idea for me, if anyone is looking: