In this day and age, most of us have pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that reality television isn’t going away any time soon.

Indeed, with ever-present declines in audience viewership, the days of Jennifer Aniston earning close to $1,000,000 an episode seem to be quickly morphing into a once-in-a-series dowry in return for shedding every iota of humility and self-respect on shows like “Cupid” (which let’s face it, is basically just “American Idol” without the singing).

So much so that the only survivor of “Friends” will be Joey who will attempt to squeeze out every last bit of value out of the franchise (at a cut-price rate no doubt).

Still, there are some reasons to rejoice at reality. Take “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” for example. To this series I say, “Bravo!”

There are two inevitabilities associated with this sleeper hit, which seemed to be hiding in the closet for way too long. Firstly, this kind of originality could only come from cable and second, it won’t be long before Old Mother Hubbard (read: Bravo parent, NBC) sucks this into its Prime Time Cupboard (in fact, someone recently suggested to me that Bravo is the ideal Chia Pet for NBC: water, stand back and see what sprouts up).

“Queer Eye” is Fab to the multiple of five. For every straight guy who has ever given up on style, do not despair for there is hope. The same is true for every advertiser, desperately grasping his or her security blanket which is growing more haggard by the day – hope abounds in the form of reality advertising, or in the case of Queer Eye, flaming product placement: “It’s not pronounced Ralph Laur-en, it’s Ralph Lau-ren.”

Then there’s the story of life after Wylie (the yodeler who sued Yahoo! after earning only $560 for his voice). For every geek who ever got shoved into his school locker for yodeling once too many times, there is now the opportunity to cash in on this unique talent, as Yahoo! launches the search for Wylie’s heir apparent.

It is not known whether Simon Cowell will be a part of the judging process, but what is known is that 24 finalists will receive $10,000 if they make it to the top of the proverbial Yodeling Alps, together with their 30-seconds of fame.

On the Web, reality bytes in many different ways.

Perhaps the best example of this in recent months is the Ideas Happen campaign from Visa, where 13,000 entrepreneurs and visionaries submitted their own big ideas to a like-minded community of over 1.7 million cohorts in the hope of being voted as tops in the various categories.

Pepsi injected a bit of reality fizz as well when it invited viewers to vote for their favorite Pepsi television commercial, which would then be screened live on the Super Bowl.

Coke has experimented with different doses of reality as well. On TV, the brand went out of its way to convince you that it was…well, Real. (Methinks Thou Dost Protest Too Much.) “American Idol” was real special the first time around, however lost a bit of punch the second time around. On the Web, however, Coke branded homepages with every bit of familiarity that makes the brand head and shoulders above the rest. In doing so, it delivered real value on a personal level.

And the Web continues to deliver reality every day and in every way – whether in the form of real intelligence from Webcasts or Whitepapers; real anticipation through the chance to win; real directions by pointing out sources of additional information; or real participation through interactivity and involvement.

The reality of advertising on the other hand is that advertising is as unreal as they come -- from the days of cigarette advertising that always seemed to portray slim, rich, gorgeous human beings cruising along the French Riviera, to today’s dismal automotive portrayals of deserted highways that can only be depicting apocalyptic scenarios reminiscent to that of 28 Days Later, combined with the insulting disclaimer that reminds us, “do NOT attempt this in Suburbia.”

Talk about misleading advertising.

I am reminded of a ten year old’s question to me once, whereby this puzzled consumer-in-training curiously inquired as to why advertising contains so much small print. I explained to him that it was because of legal considerations, and various terms and conditions, or in child speak, because things are different in the real world. He then asked me why I work in an industry where I lie for a living.

The jury is still out whether advertising has a future as a continued source of fantasy. Consumers certainly have their fill of fiction from the News Media to inside their Gaming consoles, and everywhere from Tinseltown to across the pond at Hogwarts.

But will additional doses of make believe from Madison Avenue be embraced or rejected? And if the latter, our Creative wunderkinds might then want to look towards the most unlikely source – Reality TV – for anything along the continuum of inspiration to salvation.