In Saturday’s New York Times, Louise Story reports of the discovery by major marketers that the new trend in “user generated ads” may be neither as economical nor effective a way to get your brand out there as some might think. But the idea that the non-advertising-professional public could create ads for a brand isn’t so far fetched—Wieden and Kennedy in Portland is even respected in some circles for its unconventional approaches to hiring, looking for raw, unpolished talent in other fields like animation and sculpture. Says W&K’s head of client services in London, Sam Brookes, “We think there are plenty of people with the talent and enthusiasm to make it in advertising that lie outside of the usual accepted channels. And we want to give these people that chance. W+Kside is our way of opening up the advertising industry because we feel that the best agencies aren’t just staffed with people who only know advertising.”

But unleashing the general public on your brand and letting them have their way is very different from methodically searching for talent-in-waiting. Because of the appearance of success that a few brands have had with this tactic, namely Converse and Doritos, what’s to stop a brand from giving it a try? Well here at least, Story negates any presumption that it’s cheaper. In fact, it can be more of a pain than anything else. And in the end, do you really get good ideas? Maybe one in a hundred thousand. (We actually thought Dan Burke’s idea was pretty good here, except perhaps not working too strongly on appetite appeal.)

Missing for us here was that Story neglected to probe the true motivation behind this trend, which is that companies believe by relinquishing control of their brand to the public, a populist bottom-up spin will add another attractive dimension to the brand. You know, advertising made by you and me (or you, and you, in this case, unless you are another ad professional reading this), instead of by the big corporate advertising puppeteers who so manipulatively tug at our emotional consumer strings. The added dimension of making the whole endeavor into a contest is just another promotional ploy, adding even more value to the brand.

Brands have learned to let go, but remaining in control while letting go is the key insight to this strategy.