Chevy Tahoe

From Networked Advocacy

With openness comes some vulnerability. It's part of the game, and you should know how to both take advantage of - and protect yourself in - the new online space.

Chevy and the Apprentice teamed up in 2006 to give the public the power to create ads for the Chevy Tahoe. By piecing together some pre-prepared graphics and music, and adding text of their own choosing, participants effectively created 30 second ads.

The catch was that some participants didn't have glowing things to say about the Tahoe. And the tools provided gave them the ability to create realistic ads with critical messages about Chevy, SUVs and even Americans' broader dependence on oil.

This is a great example of the power of our new online space. Organizations, companies and networks can all 'crowdsource' tasks like research, testing, and marketing. This is more efficient, and its more participatory. But it's also a bit riskier, as this Chevy example illustrates.

Activists should not shy away from trying these tactics. But they should know what controls they want to retain. For example, can the product be publicly posted before being approved?

Chevy has since pulled the ads from its website, but you can still find many of them on YouTube. Like this one: