Meet Kenya Mejia, this year's valedictorian at Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. If her remarks at last month's graduation ceremony strike you as a bit forced, there's a good reason for that. Mejia may be the first high school student in history to insert a product placement into a graduation speech, a plug for the romantic comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper for which Twentieth Century Fox paid her $1,800.

Not that the viral marketing campaign worked or anything:

"I Love You, Beth Cooper" has been a bomb in an otherwise buoyant summer movie season. The movie, which cost an estimated $19 million to make, took in $13.4 million domestically its first three weeks in release, according to Hollywood.com. Even Ms. Mejia hasn't seen it.

Nor has the 67-second YouTube clip become the blockbuster Fox hoped for. More than a month after it was posted, the clip had garnered fewer than 2,000 views.

At least the story ends well for Mejia, though. She says she plans to put the $1,800 towards expenses at MIT, where she begins her freshman year this fall.

Fellow Graduates, Before We Greet The Future, a Word From My Sponsor [WSJ]