Clown Co. Launches a New Mass Market

Ernie Schenck is brilliant. So is the Hill Holiday blog, to which he is a regular contributor.

"General Motors, E-surance and Royal Caribbean, are among the first advertisers to line-up for the yet-to-be-named "YouTube-killer" planned by NBC, News Corp., and Yahoo among others. No surprise there. The new site, yet to be named, promises content from a dozen networks to say nothing of three major film studios.

This is a problem for YouTube. User generator content is great. And it’s likely more than just a momentary phenomenon. But it often comes at a risk for advertisers worried about connecting their brands to possible– and let’s face it, probable–objectionable content. It’s a problem. And YouTube needs to solve it. Soon."

Sorry, Ernie, I'm just not buying it. The fact that advertisers are flocking to the so-called "Clown Co." has nothing to do with YouTube (besides maybe because the youtubers actually created the market in the first place). Advertisers are swooning over the corporate child because it lets them have a few more months of hope that the mass market isn't going anywhere, that there will still be one-stop shopping, and all this may happen without another addition to their rolodex.

Too bad it can't be that easy.