UGC — Be Afraid

When you open the door to user generated content, you never REALLY know where it will take you. You are bound to end up with uneven quality, strange interpretation and even outstanding, creative work.

one bank on Vimeo

At first I thought this video was funny and sent it around to a couple of friends. But about half-way through I started to feel a little squeemish. Mike Wagner talks a lot about owning the brand, and there is no doubt that these guys are sitting right there in the corner pocket. But Ariel also raises some interesting questions about culture pollution.

Does this sort of work add value to a brand, or bring brands closer to our own daily experiences? Can these efforts start a mexican wave of emotion that ripples throughout a company? This has certainly made my brain fire … and I don’t yet know what I think of it. But I HAVE had a reaction to it … I am just lost for words.

S.

7 thoughts on “UGC — Be Afraid

  1. Does it goes much better?

    One Bank.
    one bank on Vimeo
    You get to see some really scary stuff on the web. Like the video above. These too gentlemen are so excited about the merger of their banks that they just had to sing a song about it. They wrote the song too. Now, if y…

  2. Gavin, I’m with you…I’m trying to sort out my reaction.
    The musical style reminds me of either contemporary Christian worship music, a wedding song (“two become one”) or love ballads… and that feels weird for sure.
    The vocalist “sells out” in the performance and I suppose that is good. But is this a big send up of sorts.
    Do you realy sing songs to glorify “higher standards”, “more profits” and “affinity group card service”? Are these the universal themes we reserve for lyrical poetry?
    And I’m with Vando concerning the standing O.
    Thanks for putting it out there for conversation.
    Will be interesting to hear what you say when you find the words.
    Keep creating, M

  3. The other CGC…

    I just found this clip over at Servant of Chaos, where the author wonders if this truly qualifies as consumer generated content or whether it amounts to culture pollution. Maybe it’s a different kind of CGC all together – corporate…

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