Charlie Brooker's sharp critique of user-generated content in advertising

Edu Pou uses a quote from Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror, to frame the uncomfortable reality of user-generated content campaigns. Brooker wrote in The Guardian that TV advertising used to work like this: you sat on your sofa while creatives were paid to throw a bucket of something in your face. Today, you are expected to sit on the bucket, fill it with your own material, tip it over your head while filming yourself on your mobile, then upload the video to the creatives. You do the work; they still get paid. Brooker called this 'loser generated content.' Edu acknowledges that the dynamic has shifted somewhat since that was written, but the underlying tension remains: why would people participate? Largely because they find it fun and expressive.