I’m not so certain that there’s as much of a User Revolution going on as there’s a deeper embracing of reality and the adoption of “no BS” policies in personal agendas. The media has encouraged people to become more aware and involved, and they have.

Taking a quick look at the Dove campaign for real beauty, I was reminded by their self-esteem fund of the recent uproar of body image and social pressures across talk shows when Jennifer Love Hewitt was pictured by the tabloids and called ‘fat’ across the blogosphere, when she’s a size 2 (never mind she’s reportedly pregnant — as if pregnancy isn’t even all-the-more difficult for body-image-conscious women to cope with). This is clearly a relevant social topic to be aligned to, not just because it’s popular, but because of it’s potential to damage the social fabric — real lives.

In looking at social-issue alignment/advertising, there has always been some corporate efforts toward social issues, but Dial took on a topic to a much deeper perspective when it wasn’t expected, and leveraged it to their advantage. Clearly, many brands establish their identity based on certain social alignments: REI evolved as a buying coop among serious outdoor enthusiasts (members still get annual refunds for their own purchases), Ben & Jerry leveraged their commitment of social investing of profits including creating specific products, Seventh Generation has deep sustainability commitments for all their products. As of late, not having a sound green position can put brands at a disadvantage (including even raised floor architectures).

The public is taking a no-nonsense approach to being marketed “to” and reversing the trend to being treated like trained monkeys. Clearly e-Loan had to take on an entire industry to allow consumers the right to their own credit score information. e-Loan’s business model and entire advertising campaign capitalizes on the flip of this power base. But what happens when the innovative brainchild of the e-Loan concept sells his creation and goes to the next problem? He applies a little 2.0 and comes up with another lending model to bypass the large lenders altogether — by capitalizing on both the long tail of consumers and average people with money to invest.

I close with a quote I came across illustrating the shift recognized by others: “Marketing 2.0 is as much about paying attention as getting attention.” [Sigh...] Wasn’t that the goal of Saturn’s business model over 2 decades ago?