Consumer-generated ads to the rescue

Exciting news! The global warming crisis will soon be solved. Why? Because Current TV is having a consumer-generated ad contest, that’s why. “The way nations and societies make up their minds in the modern age has much more to do with mass advertising than many of us purists would like, but that’s the reality,” Al Gore informs the New York Times. “Since we face a true planetary emergency, we have to give the planet a P.R. agent.”

Your brow is furrowed because all this talk of “mass advertising” and PR agencies sounds kind of old-think, am I right? Well, unfurrow now. Current TV will tapping the creativity of the masses, who will be incentivized to submit their home-made 15, 30, or 60-second TV spots by the possibility of winning a brand new car! The winner will be announced in November, and after that the awesome power of advertising will kick in, hip us all to the problem of this global warming thing — which, really, has hardly gotten any attention — which I can only assume will be promptly solved.
The Times story includes a quote from Butler, Shine honcho Greg Stern. (NYT doesn’t mention it, but that agency was a user-generated-content pioneer, with its Converse Gallery campaign.) “The idea of turning to consumers to spread the word is very smart,” Stern says. “It might even preclude the need for an ad agency.”

He sounds kind of relieved.