Tom Sawyer’s Whitewashed Fence: Version 2.0

Blogs and amateur websites have turned Times Square into its own publishing platform:

Advertisers have long been drawn to Times Square as a valuable place to reach consumers, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for space on billboards and blazing video screens.

But recently they have discovered that down on the ground, new technology has given low cost, face-to-face marketing campaigns something of a cutting edge as consumers spread their messages on the Internet.

Take the recent display of public toilets set up by [a major toilet paper company]: Used by thousands in Times Square and viewed by 7,400 Web users on one site alone. Or [a major sports industry’s] recent display of racecars; videos of the event have been viewed on [a user-generated video sharing website] more than 1,800 times. More than 60 people wrote about the event on their blogs and 60 more spread the word — and pictures — on [a user-generated photo sharing website].

“The great thing about the digital world is you can capture these events,” said Christian McMahan, brand director for [an alcoholic beverage], owned by [a multinational corporation responsible for many alcoholic brands]. “People can see them whether they were there that day or 3,000 miles away.”

As a result of the growing popularity of consumer-generated pictures, videos and e-mail messages on Internet sites like [a user-generated video sharing website] and [a corporately owned online community], advertisers are getting consumers to essentially do their jobs for them.

. . .

“Times Square is becoming, in a way, a publishing platform,” said Peter Stabler, director of communication strategy for [a major advertising agency part of a publicly traded media communications company]. “What happens in Times Square is no longer strictly the province of location. You can experience things that are happening there, even if you’re not there.”

On sites like [a user-generated video sharing website], [a user-generated photo sharing website] and [a corporately owned online community], an army of tourists and residents are spreading advertisers’ messages well beyond Manhattan, using their cell phones and video cameras as they walk through the marketing crossroads of the world.

Consumer brand companies are taking advantage of that by hosting elaborate events, fully aware that those events are great fodder for footage. Hosting events in Times Square, advertisers said, is like buying product placement in a TV show or a movie — except the cameras are held by consumers and the placement is on the Internet.