Corporate Media Wins The Game
This is an update to a post I wrote last year called “Corporate Media Gets the Game.” Long story short, Chevy embraced Web 2.0 and came out with a web site that allowed everyday folks to create their own Chevy ads. Of course, some people used that as an opportunity to criticize the company. And while many expected Chevy to realize its mistake and take the whole thing down, they didn’t. Instead, they realized that when you operate in new media the conversation goes both ways. The firm gets to advertise to consumers, and consumers get to advertise about the firm. But then I did a Marshall McLuhan take on the whole thing, especially the criticism, and I realized, even though the critical ads are trying to take Chevy down, Chevy’s trucks are still impossibly driving to the tops of mountains, aren’t they?–proving once again, to the critics’ chagrin I’m sure, that the medium is the message (McLuhan 1994).