As seen on TV: Big branding. Sort of.

Google, one of the biggest brands to never have done a TV spot, finally can't resist. Of course, these masters of all media have a reason: Google TV Ads service.

Here's the ad, a repurposed 'video' that some folks in the Japanese office threw together to promote the Chrome browser:

So far, more than the home cooked ad has been seen more than 2 million times on YouTube. But starting last weekend, it's supposedly airing on regular TV.

So What?

Like so many other Googleys, Google TV ads is all about driving out the middleman. Or rather, replacing multiple middle-earthlings (middlings?) with a superior Google machine form.

In this case, Google TV ads makes you the media planner and buyer, enabling you to select demographic qualities of your target and match that with cable programming and schedules. Then, Google connects you with 'Ad creation suppliers' (the middlings formerly known as 'agencies'), many of whom list their standard creation price.

Don't need custom advertising tied to objectives? Create your own advertising using Google's Spotmixer...a template + stock solution.

But wait, there's more! You get to set your bid for maximum CPM and daily budget costs...interestingly the minimum bid for one thousand impressions is $0.50. And finally, you get to steward your media buy with daily data on what ran, where, and how many impressions were actually delivered.

See the whole product demo here. See prior posts on soon-to-be-Google's lunch DIY ad solutions here and here.

Of course this may not be the solution for a big brand that needs the thoughtful, objectives-driven advertising that we've come to love and adore. Then again, there's nothing like a little deflationary pressure (one of our five themes for 2009) to make what was once laughable, serious...sort of...like Google on TV.