Is consumer generated advertising a necessary innovation or a dilution of the industry?

Consumer based advertising poses a risk to traditional advertising because it releases control of a brand. Brands are a tough commodity and they need to be monitored at all touch points in order to avoid sending a mixed message to consumers. Chevrolet experienced a hard hit when they opened up a competition to create advertising for the Chevy Tahoe. The consumers created a backlash of negative ads about Chevy and the gas guzzling Tahoe that are now all readily available to be viewed on the internet. Although some may believe the old adage that bad news is better than no news this tactic was a clear failure for the brand.

Consumer based advertising is the wave of the future. The new generation of “millenials” is not willing to accept the same passive advertising of consumers of yore. They have the ability to create their own content and have taken an ownership of sites like current TV and YouTube. It would be futile to ignore this growing segment of the population. Consumer advocates have created their own ads as homage to their favorite brands.