Gwen Stefani is the linchpin in a $300 million ad campaign for Hewlett-Packard, in which the pop star’s image and clothes stylings will be used to lure people into “better use the web to custom-produce everything from invitations and greeting cards to concert souvenir books”–and print out those items on their HP printers. One piece of the campaign: Users can make paper-doll versions of themselves and their “entourages,” presumably so they can act out “Hollaback Girl” in the privacy of their own bedrooms. (The paper-doll version of me–which, I should point out, looks nothing like me except for maybe the “sorry for existing” knock-kneedness–is at left. Sadly I couldn’t make one for Jess, since HP’s paper world is a girls-only realm (plus, he doesn’t really look good in miniskirts).)

HP’s blitz for this campaign is pretty huge–last night I saw what had to be a 30-foot video ad devoted to Gwen and her cutout charges in Times Square–but this whole campaign feels really misguided, if only because in The Year Of Live Earth Making People Care About The Planet (Kind Of), wasting paper on things like making the perfect Harajuku Girl version of yourself, instead of just posting it to your Flickr or MySpace page, seems just a tad crazily narcissistic. I’m just looking forward to the next phase of HP’s campaign, which will include Chik-Fil-A style ads where overloaded Web 2.0 server farms hold up signs saying “WASTE MORE PAPER.”

Gwen Stefani for you [hp.com]