A new degree of awesomeness in social advertising.

Via Osocio.org, here is Spent, "an online game that challenges players to survive for a month in the United States after losing your job (and having no savings)."

An esteemed copywriter friend of ours from days gone by used to say: "nothing beats a good product demo" and we always agreed with him. A good product demo defines the problem and illustrates the solution. Here, the demo illustrates the difficulties of life as a minimum wage worker and ends with a plea to donate to help those who help those in need, the Urban Ministries of Durham.

In addition to being educational and engaging (a pretty great trick by itself) and a great demonstration, Spent ingeniously incorporates social media, creating its own mechanism for going viral.

Click on the link above and play Spent for yourself. We made it 24 days. See how you do.