Three youths with about as much subtlety as the cast of Jersey Shore will star in their own reality TV show on MTV.ca, created by the network for Microsoft Canada’s Windows Live Messenger.

‘I love women and ladies love me,’ says Eric Solomon, who is one of the three stars of the show called The Youth Electric, which follows the Vancouver-based musicians as they hook up, hang out and fantasize about being famous. ‘I just want people to see me and take pictures,’ says Solomon, in a promotional broadcast teaser spot launched last Friday.

The campaign for the show will run in two phases: the first includes six 15-second broadcast teaser spots for the launch of the web portal, a strategy to familiarize viewers with the stars of the show before its launch on Aug. 12.

The online show was inspired by Messenger’s ability to connect friends, an MTV spokesperson explained to MiC. During the casting process, which generated 600 submissions, Messenger and MTV asked fans to submit audition tapes with their friends for the type of shows they wanted to see on MTV. The network approached the brand with the idea to develop this program, after which M2 Universal handled the media buy.

No product integration will appear in the show itself, however viewers can sign in and chat while watching the show online, and an advertising campaign promoting the show (three five-second bumpers) featuring the cast will include branding.

Editorial on MTV.ca and MTV will promote this through its social media networks. The Youth Electric is also being promoted through multiple ad units on MTV.ca.