That’s tough to do for many reasons, and even when you can do it, it’s pretty hard to scale. But here’s what it’s supposed to look like: Starbucks sponsoring a 25-song video series put on by The Onion.

Simon Dumenco has details on the campaign, but at its core it’s the most basic kind of video advertising, and the kind we saw at the beginning of video advertising. It’s a back-to-the-future version of TV’s early days, when brands like Texaco and Ford (F) sponsored shows called “Texaco Star Theater” and “The Ford Show.”

Back to the present: Look at how much plugging Starbucks (SBUX) has plugged in here! A preroll, plus what amounts to a preroll at the beginning of the video, plus more Starbucks references as the clip goes on. Don’t know what the coffee chain is paying for sponsoring this stuff, but the company seems determined to get its money’s worth.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists cover the Tears for Fears song, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”:

For those not following this sordid tale, the hot social-networking site stumbled badly in its handling of a new ad product that broadcasts your purchases from external Web sites back to your Facebook news feed.

Facebook has had to backpedal a lot on Beacon, including issuing an apology last week for it from Founder Mark Zuckerberg.

In the wake of Beacon’s dimming (sort of), clever Simon thought up some more ideas for the feckless Facebookers, such as Facebook Questioning:

Writes Dumenco:

Are you a closeted homosexual in a small Southern town? Facebook Questioning will automatically suggest to those friends and colleagues who are able to ‘read between the lines’ that maybe you’re ‘questioning’ your sexuality. It does this by comparing Beacon data with thresholds of what’s considered ‘normal’ heterosexual behavior by marketers. ‘The purchase by an unmarried, middle-aged male of more than two movie-musical soundtracks or DVDs per quarter doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s gay,’ says a Facebook veep. ‘But it will raise a rainbow-colored flag within our algorithm and might even help certain in-denial Facebook users with their own voyage of self-discovery.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as Seinfeld says a lot below: