Just as Cosmo is obsessed with sex positions and People can’t get enough of Brangelina, business magazines these days seem preoccupied with that crazy social media thing. Case in point: Wired‘s December issue, which has a cover-feature troika: why advertisers are drooling over YouTube; a case study on GM’s experiment with consumer generated advertising for the Chevy Tahoe, and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of LonelyGirl15, the summer’s YouTube girl next door, who turned out to be an actress faking a lonely teenager’s existence. In “YouTube vs. Boob Tube” (p. 222) Ad Age‘s Bob Garfield writes that until recently the Internet lacked the kind of riveting content to draw viewers and advertisers. That’s all changed now, and with the old TV advertising model broken, marketers suddenly have a viable alternative in YouTube. “Commercial Break” (p. 228) is a fascinating look at how Chevy let consumers produce their own online ads for the Tahoe SUV. Though many of the homemade spots attacked the Tahoe as an ozone layer-melting polluter, Chevy had the last laugh. The Tahoe accounted for more than a quarter of all SUV sales this year in the U.S., outpacing its nearest competitor, the Ford Expedition, two to one.
-ROB GERLSBECK
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From its sheer heft alone, you’ll know that the current edition of Applied Arts is worth browsing through, and you won’t be disappointed. The magazine’s 258-page Design and Advertising Annual (December issue) includes some of the year’s best work in radio, print and broadcast, as well as editorial art direction and several other design categories. Flip to the “Advertising-Miscellaneous” section for an assortment of some of the year’s best guerrilla/ wacky/thought-inducing ads, like sidewalk speed bumps promoting a yoga studio, fake books to promote a book chain, or wallets left in mall food courts to highlight a credit card company’s fraud protection expertise.
-PAUL-MARK RENDON
