When Seth Green’s “on-set freakout video” hit the web the other day, I like many others, dismissed it as fake and promptly ignored it.  Then they released “security cam footage” a couple days later supposedly showing the mugging he was pissed about, and the mugging looked a little too clear, and the freakout still seemed a little too cliché, but I wondered if maybe I was just jaded from too many lame viral videos.  Turns out, not.

[From YahooFinance via videogum] Nestlé USA today announced the launch of “Dude, Where’s My Bar?” an innovative online narrative game for consumers to help solve the mystery surrounding the October 2 theft of Green’s vintage Butterfinger bar. The “lite” alternate reality game starring Seth Green will call upon the clever, irreverent thinking of Butterfinger fans, as they compete to find and solve clues that could lead to the return of Green’s missing bar and a one-of-a-kind grand prize: a solid-gold Butterfinger bar worth $10,000.

Green collaborated with Butterfinger to produce “Dude, Where’s My Bar?” using comedy and the real world as a platform [comedy and the real world? how innovative!]. Dubbed an “alternate reality game lite” (ARGL) [!!!], DudeWheresMyBar.com propels fans into an entertaining storyline created by the comedic genius of Green and the one-and-only iconic candy bar brand.

Oh man, there’s no surer sign of marketing genius than faking a violent crime to sell candy bars!  Hey, did you see Jennifer Love Hewitt getting brutally raped on the set of Ghost Hunter the other day?  PSYCHE!  Turns out they just wanted her Hot Pocket!  So disband your lynch mobs and send them on over to Albertson’s for our new gangrape gruyere, you hungry vigilante you.  Seriously though, I wish these people would all die in a car fire.  Join me after the jump for an awful PR quote circle jerk party.

“Butterfinger has long been associated with clever, irreverent humor,” said Butterfinger marketing manager Daniel Jhung. “Leave it to this brand to serve up the first-ever consumer packaged goods ARG with a light, Butterfinger twist.” Jhung added, “This game is a salute to the truly clever community of ARG enthusiasts everywhere. They’ve made a huge impact on pop culture and given a new face to gaming.”

ARG enthusiasts unite!  Haha, leave it to those kidders at Butterfinger to write a press release from an alternate reality that doesn’t bear even a token resemblance to actual reality!  Next time it might not even be in a human language!  Schnopp flab gloop BUTTERFINGER! fargle dingle snatch flurb!

Game designer John Montgomery of Threshold Interactive said, “The game was intended to appeal to both dedicated ARG fans, looking for a light-hearted laugh, as well as casual game players. While we may call the game a ‘lite’ version of an alternate reality, there is nothing ‘light’ about the technological innovations and the degree to which the layers of games can be customized and controlled by the player.”

Today on a very special episode of Butterfinger’s alternate reality multi-platform scavenger hunt entertainment phenomenon: “We may make candy ‘bars’, but there’s nothing to ‘bar’ you from blowing the brains out of the back of your skull.”