Last month, the world raised a quizzical eyebrow towards a new advertising campaign for Stolichnaya vodka, starring two Biz Stones, hanging out with each other in a bar. This month it�a4���a4�s the turn of Foursquare�a4���a4�s Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai, posing in chunky knitwear a4s��(and with only the merest hint of homoeroticism) to promote Gap.

To say the thinking behind the ads is muddled is to use comical understatement. As I write these words, millions of Gap shoppers and Stoli drinkers are staring blankly at the over-airbrushed, bizarrely ill-conceived advertisements, thinking �a4���Ayeah, I�a4���a4�ve heard of Twitter but who the hell is that dude And what�a4���a4�s a Foursquare Is it a Facebook thing�a4����

In fact, if I were a cynical man I might draw a few appropriately cynical conclusions from corporate America&'s new-found obsession with tech entrepreneurs whom 99.9999% of the population couldn�a4���a4�t pick out of a police line-up.

I might, for example, suggest that the commercials are what happens when some the world�a4���a4�s biggest brands realise that they know jack-all about the media habits of their target customers and so, rather than admitting defeat, simply throw a burlap sack of money at a dick-headed gaggle of 20 year old sub-junior creative directors who form their entire concept of what constitutes &8216'celebrity&' from the pages of Gawker and their friends�a4���a4� Facebook walls. I might also bandy around phrases like �a4���Acringeworthy�a4����, �a4���Aembarrassingly ill-conceived�a4���� and �a4���Ashould be lined up against the stark white walls of their painfully minimalistic Madison Avenue offices and shot twice at close range�a4����.

Fortunately, though, I�a4���a4�m not a cynical man. And as such I�a4���a4�m able to appreciate the true brilliance of the commercials. I mean, sure, maybe only fifty people in Silicon Valley and Manhattan will understand the ads&8230' will appreciate why a photo of Biz Stone, getting slowly drunk with only himself for company is actually a brilliantly arch comment on the media�a4���a4�s obsession with Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey. Or will comprehend why choosing the founders of Foursquare to model clothing from the official uniform supplier to unemployed hipster wannabes is a piece of pitch-perfect commercial satire, worthy of Adbusters.

&8230'but, while the number of people who truly grok the ads might be small, those fifty people also happen to have a frightening level of disposable income, along with the commensurate level of youthful naivete required to blow it all on mid-range vodka and woolen beanies. After all, the cash they just raised to build their awesome new �a4���AGroupon for Q&'As�a4���� platform isn�a4���a4�t going to spend itself.

With the banks in ruin and Bernie Madoff in jail, these kids are America�a4���a4�s new highest-spending demographic and the further advertisers can dig into the Internet�a4���a4�s navel to find spokesmodels, the more likely these new-new-new rich kids are to respond. With that in mind, look out for the following Silicon-Valley-themed product endorsements this holiday season&8230'