Winning Consumer-Generated Content Not Created by 'Real' Consumers

MIT Advertising Lab has an interesting story that highlights the not so secret fact many of the consumer-generated commercials that made there way to the Super Bowl and elsewhere aren't created by "regular" consumers but by consumers who also happen to work in creative industries.

The winner of this year's Doritos Crash the Super Bowl consumer-generated ad contest, Joshua Svoboda, is a creative director at 5 Point Productions.

The article goes on to name many consumer-generated ad contest creators and their employment histories. They are filmmakers, musicians, producers, photographers and directors. Nary an electronic engineer in the bunch.

This is not, as the article points out, a bad thing necessarily. It's just that we wouldn't all pretend the people who are making these consumer-generated commercials are cubicle drones in widget factories who just want to get their creative freak on once in a while.