OK, I get it. Programmatic ads are becoming "more human, seamless, efficient, and easy to digest," as Millward Brown predicted they would. There's no stopping the algorithms. But there's still a lot of life yet in that most effective form of storytelling: the clever product demonstration, which predates W.C. Fields pitching a cure for hoarseness by several millennia.

Despite the headlines, content marketing is not only about megabrands diverting advertising dollars into six- or seven-figure branded-content budgets. It's not all about big publishers rolling out branded-content studios, either. Nor was it invented yesterday.

Can you think of any commercial content that has enjoyed as long an infectious run - in multiple iterations - as Coca-Coca's 1971 "Hilltop"? The original spot was most recently revived in the final scene of the final episode of "Mad Men." Coca-Cola jumped on the free exposure, of course. Nearly 5,000 "likes" were registered on its mention on Facebook. But when you're living by the hashtag, you're just as easily bashed by the hashtag. A "diss video" that that turns the "Hilltop" spot on its iconic head has been circulating for a couple of months: The Center for Science …

I was introduced to the concept of unboxing about a year ago by my favorite 3-year-old, who seemed to enjoy jerry-rigged YouTube videos that featured an array of everyday people opening up packages of toy Octonauts as much as she was enthralled by the actual scripted adventures of Captain Barnacles Bear and his crew on Disney Junior. I've noticed Lili has been less interested in unboxing videos since she turned four, however. So I figured the whole "cottage" industry of people commenting on the stuff they've unwrapped--sometimes concocting ad-hoc stories involving the figurines and their vehicles or habitats, sometimes not-was …