GM'S USER-GENERATED ADS

HatTip to Adrian (dude, what's up with the new blog description? Jurgen Habermas and Niklas Luhmann?), our UI guy, for this NY Times article and his comments:

So what's an ad exec to make of it? Of course they knew that if they let consumers create their own ads for their Chevy Tahoe they'd get more than a few slaps in the face. But this is not just a case of opening up the phone lines for callers out there in radio land; this is not just one of those NPR moments.... this can't be, just, one of those... (PTA, laughing yet?) Let's back up so that we catch a glimpse of the forest, while they're still there, greening as they do. When GM puts an SUV in a forest most of us are smart enough to separte the image from the message. And most of us immediately re-write the message. A commercial's message is one "truth;" the viewer's truth may be different. Truth is not carried in the message. (full post)