IN seeking to make the new search engine Bing as much a part of the popular culture as “bada bing,” Bing Crosby or Stanley Bing, Microsoft is buying prominent placement for bing.com inside television shows and the online video hub Hulu.

The effort to weave advertising for Bing into content, known as branded entertainment, is intended to complement an elaborate traditional campaign, which began on Wednesday with commercials created by the JWT unit of WPP.

The Microsoft Corporation is estimated to be spending $80 million to $100 million on ads to help establish Bing as a viable alternative to the 800-pound gorilla of search, Google. It is the most recent of several attempts by Microsoft  all flops  to become a significant factor in search, where ad spending has held up better than in most other media.

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“It’s a very tall marketing challenge and a very tall product challenge,” acknowledged Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president for the online services division of Microsoft in Redmond, Wash.