In this consumer-in-the-driving seat world of marketing, the idea of getting consumers to design their own ads is a facinating one whose time has come and gone and come again. Even before the Net, I recall (somewhere in London, i believe) a tactic where McDonald’s allowed customers to design their own coupon. Hand drawn ones.

More recently, Converse has been solicting user content –not commercials, it says, but ‘films.’ That’s a 24-second film, which um, sounds like a commercial, to me. Just add an intro and end frame. There’s more about this on Cory Confetti’s blog, User Generated, about an antiperspirant ad for Ban, and user generated commercials.

So this story about Chevy Taho, in the New York Times, adds a new twist. When a company opens itself up to consumer ‘feedback’ of this nature, albeit ads, it has to expect opinions from all kinds of people –customers and those who aren’t exactly fans. The rules on the Chevy site (co-branded with The Apprentice) specify that the submitted ad must contain 5 or more clips from what has been provided. But still that leave enough room for people to express themselved.

Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell, the very interesting Church of the Customer folks, aptly call this a game, not real UGC. Why play this game and ask customers to do the work that you anyway pay an ad agency? One word: engagement. Marketers have grown weary of eyeballs. They want customers to take the reigns –even of their creative. Agencies must love it –creating advertising that solicits advertising.