This is somwhat of the chicken and the egg problem - do people have a desire for a Bitcoin market, or does a Bitcoin market exist before people aquire a desire to use that market? However, I agree with the many posters who think that it is too early to market Bitcoin to a wider audience. Presumably a number of people who see the ad will view the webpage, but if that webpage cannot display the usability of Bitcoins, not many will take any further steps. To target "the masses" a marketplace must be in place. In my humble opinion, it is better at this stage to target early adopters of users and merchants, which of course the upcoming FB campaign does. Since word-to-mouth is the best form of marketing, people's positive experience from using Bitcoin would have a far greater impact, which would promote Bitcoins further.

As to the forum of the ad; call me stereotypical, but most people that buy products from infomercials are not consumers of the type that search for information about products, instead they prefer to sit in their couch and digest whatever the merchandise presenter says, why the impact of this ad is likely to be rather small. Has paypal ever had tv commercials? I have not seen any, although I do not watch that much TV. TV is probably not a good marketing forum at any stage of Bitcoin, in a cost/benefit sense. Of course, "the only bad exposure is no exposure" or something like that, so I do not see that the ad will have a negative impact; almost all viewers who may think that Bitcoin is a scam are very likely to forget about Bitcoin in a very short time span.