• The New York Times, Monday, June 30, 2008 11:30 AM

Google is partnering with "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane to distribute two-minute episodes of a new cartoon, "Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy" through its AdSense advertising system. The search giant will syndicate the program to thousands of Web sites that typically attract young men. Instead of static ads, clips of "Cavalcade" will appear where AdWords ads usually go on these sites.

Advertising, of course, will be incorporated into the clips in a variety of ways, including prerolls, banners, or a simple "brought to you by" note appearing at the beginning of each clip. For more money, MacFarlane has been working with advertisers to animate original commercials for "Cavalcade." While none of the launch advertisers are being revealed, MacFarlane and Google are both saying that several deals are among the largest ever for Google's 5-year-old advertising system. Google refers to the new service as the Google Content Network. "Cavalcade" carries a multimillion-dollar production price tag.

MacFarlane described the installments to The Times as "animated versions of the one-frame cartoons you might see in The New Yorker, only edgier." As part of the deal, MacFarlane will receive a percentage of the ad revenue from the 50 two-minute episodes.

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