When is Rich Media Marketing...Just Rich?

So I was reading my overflowing inbox and I come across a story in the New York Post about online ad spending. But that's not the story. The story is the ad on the site from Lincoln. Not the Cornhusker capital, but the car company. Here's the ad that was wedged in between copy. It's called "Lovely By Surprise."


You click on this and you get a movie trailer about some wierd movie called "Lovely By Surprise". The trailer looks like an American Express commercial - it just has that ad feeling - but it's really content/entertainment, I think. The site is interesting, but confusing. Still, the aspiring screenwriter in me made me click deeper into the site.

Then I noticed that Ford is actually sponsoring the site. So as any marketer would ask himself or herself - will this site help the struggling Ford Company (who makes the Lincoln Navigator) sell more cars? Does it have to? Obviously the Surprise site is part of a much larger and more complex integrated marketing effort ,which arguably hasn't really worked for Ford given the recent massive layoffs. So why put so much time and money into this effort...especially now?

When is rich media marketing just rich?