Let's face it, if making a viral video were easy, everyone would do it. But it isn't and that's why corporate advertising disguised as amateur YouTube video rarely strikes a chord of, say, Levi's unbuttoned videos.

As AdAge points out, Wendy's first viral attempt, "Crazy Lettuce," is bombing on YouTube (16,000 views, no funny responses). But AdAge also notes how little Wendy's agency, Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, spent on the video: $25,000, compared to the $300,000 cost to produce a TV ad.

The agency no doubt shared that figure to show it hardly wasted any of its client's money on the video. This one didn't work, but the next one might.

The moral here is that Web video is allowing experimentation that would never happen where Wendy's typically advertises, on broadcast TV. Just think, Wendy's can try 11 more times--and keep a room of 20-something creatives working for a year--and still spend less than the production cost of one TV ad. Oh, and no media time to buy here; uploading video to YouTube is free. (And we actually think this one is pretty funny.)

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