Taking a break from shooting a Gillette commercial, Roger Federer manages a brilliant trick shot, knocking a bottle off a crew member’s head without a moment’s hesitation. Gillette luckily gets the shot on film and uploads it to YouTube, scoring millions of hits in just two weeks.

Sounds too good to be true, and it probably is. The bit about millions of views is true: the video was uploaded on August 16th, and now has over 6 million views on its official upload. The shot itself is probably fake, though Gillette claims it was completed in a single take. But isn’t that the most exciting part? Blog posts have gone up dedicated to decrying the video as fake and showing off some of Federer’s top serves. YouTube commentators passionately argue both sides. It’s a low-stakes controversy that stirs the blood and gets sports fans excited.

Real or fake, there are a lot of winners involved. Federer comes off looking like a champ, Gillette gets the views, and even the British Skin Foundation gets a plug. And no one’s going to complain when (or if) the truth comes out.

When couture ads became short films, it was only a matter of time before we reached our current point: an advertisement for an advertisement.

Frank Miller (director of Sin City) has created a short film to promote Gucci’s new fragrance, Gucci Guilty. The film, by the same name, premiered online on Tuesday, and on television today. The director’s cut will premiere at the MTV VMAs, and Gucci has put together a contest on its Facebook page to send two fans to the show.

But in the meantime, Gucci built hype with this trailer, which advertises the film. How soon until we can no longer draw the line between high-budget promotional films and Hollywood films replete with product placement?

California is consider passing a ban on plastic bags. Heal the Bay, a non-profit organization dedicated to cleaning, protecting and maintaining Santa Monica Bay and its ecosystems, wants to make sure that ban happens. So it’s put together a short documentary on the life cycle of the humble plastic bag, following it from “birth” at the grocery store to its home in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, where it goes on to degrade and eventually enter our food chain.

The video is narrated by Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons, and it’s an entertaining bit of satire. Viewers seem to agree – the video, though a touch on the longer side of internet attention spans at nearly 4 minutes, has gained over 50 thousand views in just four short days. We won’t be surprised to see this one gathering viewers exponentially, either.

Honda wants everyone to know that you can pack a lot into a Honda Jazz. A lot of what? Well, pretty much anything you can imagine.

Honda Australia has put out a call for ideas. What’s the most interesting thing to pack into a Jazz? Fans can nominate ideas at the campaign’s website, and vote for their favorites. Honda has pledged to create an ad based on the most popular idea (currently Cash), and its creator wins the Jazz from the ads. Simple and fun.

So far they’ve packed a Jazz with ninjas, “rap,” “massive,” and hipsters. Here’s my personal favorite, How much Hipster can you pack in a Jazz?, which has picked up over 250,000 views in a couple short weeks.

We’ve seen a few global experiments created on YouTube, like the YouTube Symphony. Here’s a new one that promises interesting results, and it’s sponsored by electronics giant LG.

Life in a Day promises to be the first crowdsourced, user generated feature film (and that’s certainly true if you add ‘created by a major Hollywood director’ to the list), and the concept sounds like a lot of fun. On July 24th, thousands of people worldwide filmed something from their lives. Many were YouTube users, but the team also sent high definition cameras to remote areas of the world with limited internet access. The project is ambitious – a feature length documentary one a single day on Earth, as experienced by a cast of thousands. The team involved is hoping for a few things – innovation, creativity, drama and high res visuals, and is hoping to avoid name brands, preset soundtracks and other muddling factors. But whatever they get, they’ll pore through the entries, and the film will be put together by Kevin MacDonald, director of The Last King of Scotland and produced by Ridley Scott.

The final film will premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and twenty contributors will be chosen to attend. They, and all the others, will also receive co-directing credits.

Here’s the pitch: