Lifestyle marketing isn't a new idea. It's part of what made tabacoo successful. But they were making educated guesses on what might work, i.e. the cowboy smoking.

The difference I see is that there is feedback on the ads other than sales and it seems like you could closely tailor ads to specific demographics.

Hmmm, how about amateur psychological manipulation that went viral because it's emotionally effective?

I think this is the risk we pay by reading the Internet? The filtering implicit in things going viral is a mixed bag.