• NY Times, Wednesday, April 5, 2006 11 AM

Perhaps Chevy is getting what it deserves by asking consumers to create ads for them, writes Stuart Elliott of The New York Times. As a new means of "engaging" consumers with brands, some advertisers have asked consumers to make their marketing messages for them, offering some kind of incentive to the user who creates the best ad. Chevrolet, using video shot for a 30-second TV commercial for its 2007 Tahoe, in which the vehicle careens down a sunflower-lined country road, did just that, and some of the responses they've gotten haven't exactly been what a media agency would like to see consumers doing with their client’s brand. At the end of the video clip, one consumer posts, in white lettering:   "$70 to fill up the tank, which will last less than 400 miles. Chevy Tahoe." Part of the idea here is that consumers will share their video creations with friends--but not these kinds of creations, which, the Times says became the most widely-circulated videos of the Chevy Tahoe on the Web. Says another, using an image of the Tahoe driving through the desert: "Our planet's oil is almost gone. You don't need G.P.S. to see where this road leads." Advertisers, who've become enamored of late with user-generated content, "buzz," and engagement, are learning the hard way that these opportunities can be a double-edged sword. The lesson here: there is a context for consumer engagement and viral marketing; just because consumers don't necessarily hate advertising doesn't mean they love plugging your brand for you, either.  

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