That's the question that Jason Calacanis asks regarding the Super Bowl ads and the future of advertising. There are a number of issues here. First, it is totally clear that the cost of entry to do interesting/provocative video work has dropped to such a point that creative directors will have to compete on price more than they'd like -- in the same way a first time director can now come up with a finished product that is at least in the same ballpark as studio, an individual can create and ad that is Madison Ave-esque in quality. Second, talent is talent. What I mean here is that just because someone has the tools to do a movie doesn't mean they have the skills. Same for ads. In general, the ads on the Super Bowl were all pretty mediocre -- including the user generated ones. Finally, there is significant risk with looking to user generate ads. They can hurt a brand, they can be too edgy, they can be used by competitors. So there needs to be a pretty healthy reward to make the risk worthwhile -- thus far, the risk/reward ratio seems out of line.