Ad It Up

Firefox Flicks: What does it mean when consumers become producers – of advertising?

Advertising was called the “folklore of industrial society” as early as the 1950’s, when Marshall McLuhan used that phrase. Back then, though, the tools required to fashion and disseminate the images and stories of industrial products to the masses were available only to industry (or rather to the advertising agencies hired by industry). Today the folk — or at least much of the middle class — have those tools, too, and in recent years have shown a surprising willingness to use them on behalf of brands. Converse has solicited consumer-made commercials for a couple of years and has received more than a thousand; lately General Motors, MasterCard and others have asked for, and received, contributions to their marketing efforts from the grass roots. Perhaps the most famous consumer-created ad — a computer animation of flying iPods made by a California teacher — was made and distributed without any input from the makers of the product. It makes sense that Firefox, the Web browser distributed by the Mozilla Corporation, would try this approach …
Continue reading at the NYT Magazine site by way of this no-registration-required link.

Related links:

• Firefox Flicks
• Parody of most popular Firefox Flick ad
• Grant McCracken’s blog post on “co-creation” and the Chevy Tahoe
• August 2004 Inc. Magazine article (by me) on “The People’s Marketing.”

Also, not related, but in the NYT Magazine this week and worth reading: Randy Kennedy’s article about MTV making shows for cellphones, and Scott Anderson’s cover story on National Guardsmen re-adjusting to civilian life after tours in Iraq. On the latter subject, this recent episode of public-radio show Speaking of Faith is also worthwhile.