Oh dear. Mattel has gone and made a doll-promoting product-placement reality series called Genuine Ken: The Search for the Great American Boyfriend, hosted by Whitney Port. They've rolled out a preview clip and a fascinating website introducing the boytestants.

The advertorial show will air on Hulu starting next week, so we'll have to anxiously bide our time until then. But, there is at least GenuineKen.com, which profiles each of the eight competitors and features videos of the guys describing themselves, in their own words. OMG. So who's totally going to win?

Well, Chris Holscher, aka Compassionate Ken, is clearly the cutest. So that's all that really matters, right? Sure he calls himself "a goofball" and is a male cheerleader, but who cares. He's cute!



There's also a guy named Kash Kiefer (the "All Ameri-Ken," srsly) which is a hilarious name. And there's an obvious nod to Jersey Shore in Michael Pericoloso, Party Ken, a Jersey-born and raised mook who's a "Bartender, Rapper, Gym trainer" and thinks he's got a great body. Hm... that kind of braggadocio does not suit someone as goony and milquetoast as Ken Carson!

So we go back to Compassionate Ken, who has the corn-fed good looks that define Ken, plus the boyish wholesomeness that makes the genital-less doll such a non-threatening catch for Barbie. Who, I guess, for the purposes of this reality/advertising experiment is Whitney Port?

[There was a video here]

[via The Hairpin]