Annals of empowerment

Catching up on some reading that I fell behind on after being away for a few days, I see that Bob Garfield invited the readers of a recent issue of Ad Age to ponder “a post-apocalyptic media world substantially devoid of brand advertising as we have known it…. a world in which consumer engagement occurs without consumer interruption.”

This is the latest installment of the “chaos scenario” he’s been pushing for a while now, and of course the Internet is a big part of it; the online video boom that’s taken off since his original chaos piece two years ago is underscored.

I always have to remind myself that Garfield is writing for the trade, not for the rest of us. And maybe he’s correct about What It All Portends for ad pros. (Although I have to say, most of the marketers I deal with don’t seem to be trembling in their limited-edition sneakers, but possibly they’re just in denial.) Yet when I read for the zillionth time that the “consumer is in control,” and the Webby world will be devoid of commercial interruption, all I can say is: Have you ever been on the Web? Cos I’ve kinda noticed some ads there.

And speaking of online video, I see that Lonelygirl15, the wildly hyped fake video diary, has cut a sponsorship deal, with Hershey. Of course the savvy forward-thinking types who made Lonelygirl15 a hit, or at least the subject of many articles in the “mainstream” media, won’t stand for commercials. So:

In a video posted on March 20 on the official Lonelygirl site, Lg15.com, the show’s main character Bree is seen offering her friends a piece of Icebreaker’s gum, and a close-up of the product is shown.

According to Brandweek, this is a “sophisticated” example of “branded entertainment.”

As a non-member of the ad trade, it kind of sounds to me like consumer interruption. It sounds like consumer interruption that can’t be avoided — because it’s embedded in the entertaintment. It sounds like a glimpse of a world in which ads aren’t segregated into 30-second chunks or double-page magazine spreads that consumers can focus on or ignore as they please: If I feel like engaging with Lonelygirl15, but I don’t feel like engaging with Icebreaker’s gum, I’m basically out of luck; I have no “control” over this scenario at all.

But what do I know? A co-creator of Lonelygirl15 sounds quite pleased. “It’s empowering,” he comments, “for us to have a major international brand like Hershey’s treat us like they would any other major entertainment property.”