Travelocity Gnome Joins Chatroulette

Chatroulette, a random video chat service that's similar to speed dating, now has the Travelocity Gnome jumping aboard the chat-fest. It's not the first brand to try the service. French Connection did that early last month.

Travelocity agency McKinney mans the gnome who holds up signs with various messages including "This would be more fun if we were in Rio." Hmm. How long before some enterprising hacker invents an "auto-next" feature so everyone can avoid chatting with a brand while they are busy having cybersex (remember that term?)?

Regarding some people's natural inclination to work sex into every media form, Travelocity's Joel Frey told AdWeek, "If we run across that type of person we're not going to engage we him. We'll leave it at that. It's something that's a concern with a new and different form like this. As long as we're being disciplined, we can overcome that and keep it to conversations with people who should be thinking about trips."

So here we have a yet another new "social media" service and within months, brands are all over it. Is this a good thing? Is there a place for brands on Chatroulette? Do people really want to chat with a brand? Thoughts?