VIGILANTE MARKETING AND CONSUMER-CREATED COMMUNICATIONS

Albert M. Muiz Jr. and Hope Jensen Schau

ABSTRACT: Consumers, acting independently of marketers and advertisers, have started creating and disseminating documents that strongly resemble, in form and intent, ads for the brands that they love. Employing a netnographic method,
this paper investigates consumer-generated, commercially relevant artifacts by examining the brand community centered
on the Apple Newton, a brand that was (along with its supporting advertising) discontinued in 1998. The members of
the Newton community create commercially relevant content to fill the void created by the lack of advertising for the
brand. These artifacts reflect tensions with the marketer, the market, and the community itself, and imbue the brand with
powerful meaning. These data reveal that consumers can be quite skilled in the creation of brand-relevant communications, applying the styles, logics, and grammar of advertising. The ascendancy of consumer-generated content prefigures
revolutionary changes in how advertising is defined and practiced.

Advertising as a practice has been greatly affected by recent

trends in technology and media. Beyond the traditional notions
of corporate-generated, paid, dissemination of one-to-many
marketing messages, new technologies allow for more personal, targeted communications, as well as increased consumer
participation in the creation of marketing and brand-related
information (Cappo 2003; Jaffe 2005). Amidst the cacophony
of brand-related voices vying for attention, consumers are
increasingly revealing themselves to be interested in, and
more than capable of, contributing to the brand promoting
conversation (Garfield 2005; Jaffe 2005; Wipperfurth 2005).
Consumers, acting independently of marketers and advertisers, have started creating and disseminating documents that
strongly resemble in form and intent ads for the brands that
they love (Flight 2005; Kahney 2004b). Many are for brands
with strong communal aspects (Ives 2004).
Consumer-generated content has been created by fans of the
Apple iPod, Coca-Cola, Firefox (Web browser), Molson (beer),
Nike, and Volkswagen, among other brands. Such customer
evangelism goes by many names, including homebrew ads
(Kahney 2004b), folk ads (OGuinn 2003), open source
branding (Garfield 2005), and vigilante marketing (Ives
2004). We prefer the term vigilante marketing as it most accurately captures the phenomenon. Merriam-Webster (2006) de-

Albert M. Muiz, Jr. (Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana

Champaign) is an associate professor of marketing, College of Commerce, DePaul University.
Hope Jensen Schau (Ph.D., University of California, Irvine) is
an assistant professor of marketing, Eller College of Management,
University of Arizona. The authors wish to thank the following
people for commenting on earlier versions of this manuscript: Eric
Arnould, Richard Elliott, Steven Kates, Cele Otnes, Linda Price,
Cristel Russell, and Mary Wolfinbarger.

fines a vigilante as a self-appointed doer of justice. Consumers

creating such content are acting as self-appointed promoters
of the brand and often have firm convictions regarding what
is right and wrong for it. We thus define vigilante marking as
unpaid advertising and marketing efforts, including one-to-one, oneto-many, and many-to-many commercially oriented communications,
undertaken by brand loyalists on behalf of the brand. Some of these
creations rival, in terms of professionalism and creativity, the
official ads produced for these brands (Ives 2004). Advertising
Age columnist Bob Garfield labeled George Masters unsolicited (and unpaid) homebrew commercial for the Apple iPod
a Masterpiece (Garfield 2005, p. 1). Many of these creations
spread rapidly via e-mail, without revealing their authorship
and offering little clue as to whether or not they are official
corporate content.
While not, strictly speaking, falling into the category of
advertising as traditionally defined (because corporate funds
are not expended for their creation or dissemination), such
creations are highly relevant to advertisers for several reasons.
First, they provide evidence of consumer perceptions of brands
and brand attributes. Second, they are vivid examples of the
most compelling marketing messages from the perspective
of brand loyalists. Third, and perhaps most significantly,
they are only going to increase in frequency and prominence
(Jaffe 2005). Given wider trends in on-line communication,
wherein consumer-created content is rapidly increasing in
many domains (Kahney 2004a), such activities should not be
surprising. Some even go so far as to assert that these challenges
are revolutionary. Even members of the so-called old guard,
such as integrated marketing communications (IMC) guru
Don Shultz, understand and believe this notion:
Media advertising, as we have known, practiced, and worshipped it for the past sixty or so years, is in trouble. Big
trouble. And its not going to get well. Ever. (Shultz 2005,
p. xi)
Journal of Advertising, vol. 36, no. 3 (Fall 2007), pp. 187202.
2007 American Academy of Advertising. All rights reserved.
ISSN 0091-3367 / 2007 $9.50 + 0.00.
DOI 10.2753/JOA0091-3367360303

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He continues:
Traditional media advertising, with its myths, traditions,
pecking orders, perks and privileges, is being replaced by
gaming, on-demand, communal, and consumer-generated
content and the host of other, more relevant approaches. We
likely will never, ever see a commercial like Apples 1984,
simply because there will never, ever be a similar venue or a
similarly focused audience. While thats a shame, its reality.
So lets move on. (Shultz 2005, p. xiv)

Noted Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield recently made

similar observations (Garfield 2005). Whether or not the future
of advertising is as imperiled as such observers believe (also see
Jaffe 2005), it is clear that advertising and brand promotion
face some significant challenges. Meeting these challenges
will require a major shift in the way advertising is defined and
practiced. Despite the significance of these phenomena, there
is still much to be learned about them.
Using a netnographic method, this paper investigates
consumer-generated, commercially centered artifacts by
examining the brand community centered on the Apple
Newton, a brand that was (along with its supporting advertising) discontinued in 1998. While the Newton brand was
abandoned, the larger Apple brand lives on. This unique community site allows us to witness the ways a brand community
builds commitment to the brand and the community in the
absence of corporate advertising and promotion. This site also
allows us an exceptional vantage from which to examine consumer-created advertising artifacts and the meanings a brand
community attaches to them. Our data demonstrate effective
consumer-generated communications for the Apple Newton
that are collectively created, disseminated, and distilled within
a strong consumer-controlled brand community. These data
reveal much about consumer-to-consumer communications,
including consumers sophistication and agility in mimicking
the conventions of advertising in order to invest brands with
the meanings they seek. We conclude by offering implications
for advertising theory and practice.
ADVERTISING AND BRAND COMMUNITIES
Consumers use advertisements for their meaning as well as
their product information (McCracken 1986; Mick and Buhl
1992; Ritson and Elliot 1999). Advertising practitioners are
aware of this and appear to take it into account when designing ads that are intentionally polysemic (Kates and Goh 2003;
Ritson and Elliott 1999). Meaning in advertising is quite
powerful, affecting the self-definition of the consumer (Shields
and Heinecken 2002) and frequently insinuating itself into
everything from everyday conversation (Alperstein 1990) to
complex consumer ritual (Otnes and Scott 1996). Because
brands become incorporated into the consumers self-identity

and have a prominent role in defining and communicating complicated and important identity projects to others
(Schau and Gilly 2003), the significance of brand meaning,
particularly that derived from advertising content, cannot be
overstated. Some have even suggested that the meaning of a
brand is its most important characteristic (OGuinn and Muiz 2005). Obviously, consumers value brand and advertising
meaning quite highly.
The powerful role of the social context in the interpretation
of advertising meaning is well established. Advertisements are
powerful shared texts that structure and become intertwined
with much social interaction. Ritson and Elliott (1999) demonstrate the many ways advertising structures social interaction
between adolescents. Adolescents evaluative discussions of
current advertising campaigns are important mechanisms for
revealing preferences and viewpoints to one another. Similarly,
Alperstein (1990) noted the importance of the social context
of advertising consumption when he described the ways television advertising content worked its way into everyday social
conversations. The social context of advertising powerfully
influences the way ads are interpreted and the way in which
the resulting brand meanings are used.
Contributing to these powerful contextual effects is the
fact that various social groups share interpretive strategies
for advertisements. These groups can be based on ethnicity
(Motley, Henderson, and Baker 2003), gender (Kates and
Shaw-Garlock 1999), or nationality (ODonohoe 1997). For
example, ODonohoe (1997) studied the meanings that adolescents in Scotland attached to ads, based on the perceived
country of origin of the ads. She found these adolescents to be
agile and active readers (p. 693) of advertisements. Moreover, the meanings they ascribed to the ads were intertwined
with their sense of national and local identity, with ads that
most accurately represented Scotland and Scottishness being
appreciated more than those that illegitimately attempted to
employ those themes. The nature and cultures of social groups
affect the ways members of such groups interpret and attach
meanings to ads.
While the importance of culturally bound meanings of
advertisements has been recognized, little attention has been
directed at the subcultural interpretive frame represented by
collectives of the brands most devoted fans. How do brand
communities support, alter, or challenge the meanings offered by the advertiser? Evidence suggests that they can be
quite powerful in this regard. Some of the brand community
members studied by Muiz and OGuinn (2001) created Web
pages that featured advertising for the brand. These members
celebrated the advertisements, accepted the meanings they
offered, and used them to attach meaning to their own experiences with the brand. Mills, Boylstein, and Lorean (2001) report similar findings. They looked at advertising for the Saturn
(automobile), which at the time emphasized themes of commu-

Fall 2007

nity and affiliation, and its impact on Saturn consumers. They

discovered that these community and affiliation themes were
also present in the interpersonal stories told by consumers. On
the other hand, some of the informants studied by Muiz and
OGuinn (2001) were quite critical of the marketing for their
brands, disapproving of advertising strategies and executions.
Instead of simply accepting marketer-suggested meanings for
these brands, members sometimes rejected them and created
their own divergent meanings through elaborate images or
personal stories.
Brand communities are the site of complex brand meaning
creation and consumption efforts. As such, they may be the
best place to look for instances of vigilante marketing. Certainly, this is the perspective of many practitioners writing in
this area (Atkins 2004; Wipperfurth 2005). Advertising and
brand meaning figure quite prominently into brand communities; advertising is frequently discussed, meanings are openly
negotiated, and corporate communications become part of
the brand lexicon, and indeed the ethos, of the community
(Kates 2002; Schau and Muiz 2002). Given these realities, we
examine consumer-generated content in an abandoned brand
community (Muiz and Schau 2005). We reason that if brand
communities are the site of such behaviors, then an abandoned
brand community might present more robust versions. Such
a unique community site would represent the phenomena in
its purest form.
METHOD
The Apple Newton Community as a
Brand Community Site
The Apple Newton was the earliest entrant into the personal
digital assistants (PDAs) product category. It was rushed to
market in 1993, but was far from bug-free. Its problems were
widely reported and lampooned in the media, which discouraged many potential adopters. As a result, the Newton never
achieved critical mass. It did, however, engender a strong and
fiercely loyal grassroots community (Wagner 1998). While
close to 200,000 users were estimated at the height of its
popularity (Cooper 1998), the Newton lost its lead in the
emerging PDA category to the Palm Pilot in 1996 and was
officially discontinued by Apple in February of 1998. Despite
being discontinued, the Newton brand community continues
to thrive (Kahney 2004c). Roughly three to four thousand
Newton users are active participants in on-line forums. Researcher field notes reveal that the participants in these forums
are quite active and vocal in their consumption and interpretation of the brand. Members are in frequent contact about a
variety of brand-specific issues. The Newton brand community
has a lengthy history of producing consumer-generated brand
content. Members have long-created artifacts (documents, im-

189

ages, videos) to create brand meaning. Many of these artifacts

resemble advertisements and are intended to serve many of
the same functions as advertising.
Netnographic Procedures
Data
Data collection for this project combines observation, participant observation, and interview methods. These include
individual and communal consumer-generated brand-related
artifacts, messages posted to two forums that are central to the
community, several user-created Web pages devoted to the Newton, researcher field notes, and a series of interviews conducted
with members of the community. A netnographic approach
(Kozinets 2002) was deemed appropriate after extended observation of the community revealed the Internet to be the chief
way members of this community interact. An ethnographic approach like this (Wolcott 1994) also allowed us to delve deeply
into complex community meanings. We began observing this
community in mid-2000, two and a half years after the Newton
had been discontinued. The data we report are longitudinal and
our observation of the community is ongoing.
A sizeable portion of the data for this study includes the
messages that members post to one another via two community forums (both pseudonymously disguised): the alt.fan.
newton Usenet newsgroup and the Newt.net listserv. These
two forums are the primary means by which members of the
Newton community interact and artifacts are disseminated.
Advertising and brand-related discourse is common in these
forums. Such discussions include evaluations of the original
Newton advertising, as well as presentations and discussions
of user-created brand content, some of which is explicitly
designed to resemble advertising in form and function. Thirtyfive user-created Web pages were also examined. A maximum
variation sampling scheme (Miles and Huberman 1994) was
used to capture a variety of themes and styles. The examination
of these Web sites is consistent with a recent study of personal
Web space content (Schau and Gilly 2003). Consumer-created
artifacts were selected for analysis based on two distinct but
highly related criteria: breadth of dissemination and breadth
of discussion. The artifacts analyzed were all disseminated via
public Web sites and were discussed extensively in at least one
of the community forums. These artifacts became the central
focus of our inquiry.
Interviews were conducted with members of the Newton
community regarding the artifacts and their meanings to
the members of the community. Observation preceded entry,
allowing us to conduct informed interviews. To recruit volunteers, we used a research Web page, which we announced
via postings to the two community forums. Ninety people
responded with answers to our questions. After reading the

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original responses, we contacted individual members of the

community with follow-up questions. In this way, we began
an ongoing dialogue with several members of the community.
Some of these evolved into extended e-mail discussions, as well
as several telephone and face-to-face interviews. Here, too, a
maximum variation sampling scheme was used to ensure that
a variety of informant perspectives were represented. Table 1
provides a summary of our data.
Both researchers made extensive use of field notes. These
notes revealed the strong and complex nature of the community, but suggested that we were too removed from our
object of study. To address this issue, the lead author engaged
in participant observation. In January 2003, the lead author
bought a Newton 2100, quickly became attached to it, and
used it for a variety of tasks, including composing researcher
field notes. His announcement to the community that he had
purchased a Newton produced positive reactions and an outpouring of support and assistance. After using a Newton for
several weeks, the importance of the community in keeping
these complex devices operating was readily apparent. This
authors brand community membership provided an important and unique perspective, as well as empathy with the
community and its plight. It has also provided an important
source of credibility with other members of the community.
The second author was a nonparticipant observer. These two
perspectives provided beneficial interpretive perspective and
tension (Denzin 1998).
Analysis
Analysis and interpretation of the data described above was
an iterative process of interpreting, deriving new questions,
searching for and collecting new data, rejecting, confirming,
and refining our emerging interpretations until they stood
the weight of the data. We relied on Wolcotts (1994) ethnographic conventions in this endeavor, moving continuously
among our focal artifacts, interview transcripts, and field
notes. We worked iteratively through the data to identify
recurring themes and motifs to produce a thick description
of Newton brand community culture. In addition, we created
an interpretation of Newton brand community culture by
making inferences from the data while relying on the literature on brand community as a guide (Creswell 1998). As our
thinking progressed, we downloaded additional threads from
the forums and conducted additional interviews to look for
counterexamples to challenge our interpretations. Member
checks were also conducted. On multiple occasions, we have
placed our interpretations on our research page and invited
members to comment on them. These comments suggested
that our emerging interpretations were on the right track
toward emic validity. After many iterations, we believe we
achieved sufficient interpretive convergence.

TABLE 1
Data Summary
Observation of on-line community
Participant observation of on-line community
Initial electronic member interviews
Follow-up electronic member interviews
Extended researcher-member
electronic exchanges (> 3)
Telephone member interviews
Face-to-face member interviews
Member Web sites

6 years
3.5 years
90 (unique)
50 of initial
22
10
5
35

FINDINGS
The Newton community easily satisfies the criteria for being
a brand community as established by Muiz and OGuinn
(2001). Consciousness of kind, moral responsibility and rituals
and traditions are all evident. Researcher field notes reveal that
members engage in numerous varied activities to perpetuate
the community and assist others using the brand. Members can
and do acquire, use, promote, repair, modify, and recycle their
Newtons without any support from the firm. The community
is entirely self-sustaining, as Apple is no longer involved.
Still, the Newton community is in a perilous position. This
is a widespread perception among members. Service, assistance
and new applications are difficult to obtain. Most of these tasks
are performed by members. In the case of developing new applications, the more skilled members of the community can
be counted on to solve the most pressing problems, but their
efforts cannot be as complete as a full marketplace of developers. Members are burdened with additional challenges, ranging
from getting the device to work with newer desktop operating
systems, to the prodding of friends, family, and colleagues to
adopt newer devices. In addition, the more time passes, the
more members will be lost due to the physical failure of the
device. A common challenge or threat can be a powerful source
of unity and inspiration (Hunter and Suttles 1972; Kephart
and Zellner 1994). It can also be the motivation for the deployment of compelling stories and images (Halperin 1998;
Janowitz 1952). This appears to be what is happening here.
The Newton community is threatened and is responding to
this threat by creating powerful meanings for the brand.
These meaning-making activities take a variety of forms,
including actions intended to fill the void created by the lack
of advertising for the brand. Members create a lot of content to
perpetuate and extend the Newton image, including many that
are explicitly designed to look like advertisements. Researcher
field notes reveal several instances in which advertising-like
content was offered to the community as an alternative Newton ad. Toward this end, it should also be noted that many
current Newton users only became aware of the Newton after
its demise via the word-of-mouth of other users. In essence,

Fall 2007

consumer-driven communications were more effective in attracting new users for this brand than were the official corporate campaigns. Vigilante marketing has a long and successful
history in the Apple Newton brand community.
The Newton users are somewhat angry, defiant, and rebellious. They contest cultural meanings given to the Newton
brand by the marketer, and the larger market. They strive to
prevent user apathy and attrition. They work diligently to
reframe symbols, distance themselves from the marketer, and
defend their right to exist and consume. These sentiments
are expressed in a variety of forms and are directed at three
primary targets: the (now absent) marketer, the market, and
the members of the community itself. Apple is frequently
targeted for not doing enough to promote the brand and for
discontinuing it prematurely. The market is targeted for its
failure to recognize and embrace the Newton. Existing users
are challenged to push their Newtons further, to do more for
the community, and to believe that anything is possible. The
tension reflected and perpetuated in these artifacts is a central
part of the community experience.

191

FIGURE 1
Consumer-Created Ad Contesting the Marketer

Contesting the Marketer

Most community members blame Apple for the failure of the
product that led to its abandonment. Many single out the advertising for the brand. Consider the following comments:
Apple didnt know how to market/explain the concept. Which
leads to a second problem. . . . people wont spend $1,500 on
something they cant see value in. When Palm came along
at $300, people thought they were the same and bought the
cheaper (and smaller) units. (Phil, male, interview)

Another user blames the poor consumer awareness the Newton

has suffered on the low amount of advertising.
Lack of advertisingI cant even count the number of times
someone has stopped me to ask about my Newtons. They have
never seen one and have no idea Apple even made a PDA.
(George, male, interview)

Many members of the community shared similar opinions

about Apples advertising for the Newton. It is a frequent
topic of conversation in the community forums. Field notes
reveal it as something members discuss when considering
the history or the ultimate fate of the community and the
brand it is centered on. The major contentions of members
are threefold: that the Newton was not sufficiently promoted
(not enough advertising), that the Newton was not properly
positioned as a complex multiattribute computing machine,
and that the Newton ads were not representative of actual users and usage.1 These concerns may explain the community
preoccupation with brand-meaning creation. They certainly

attest to the significance of advertising and brand meaning

for devoted loyal users.
The theme of anger and defiance toward Apple is common
in the user-created content. Consider the example in Figure
1. This document, and a similar companion piece, was created shortly after Apple discontinued the Newton. Most of
the community members we interviewed were familiar with
these images and what they conveyed about the Newton brand
experience. Both documents were widely distributed and can
still be found on community members sites. Both contain
the Apple logo and both mimic Apple advertising of the time
(Collins 1998). Both play with the Apple advertising tag line
Think Different to reference user outrage and both emphasize brand loyalty that was punished when the Newton was
discontinued. These user-created artifacts are obvious in their
deployment of advertising rhetoric, including contrivances
used by Apple. They are an angry yet sophisticated rallying
call to the community.
Researcher field notes reveal several instances of the appropriation of Apple advertising and branding conventions:
Found several references to the Newton underground. Appears to be a loose collective of Web sites from shortly after
the product was discontinued. Uses a modified Jolly Roger
as symbol that includes the requisite skull and crossbones, as
well as the Newton brand logoan illuminated light bulb

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FIGURE 2
Consumer-Created Logo

FIGURE 3
Consumer-Created Ad Drawing from
Multiple Brand and Cultural Sources

indicating an idea. Striking combo of visuals. Makes point

well and fits with the defiant feel of these sites. (Researcher
field notes, October 2001)

Similarly, the Newt.net listserv developed its own logo featuring the original Newton logo and a member-created slogan,
Ink Different, also derived from the Think Different tag
line. See Figure 2 for an image of this logo, which was used
on community T-shirts. So many Newton users have adopted
this logo, in both Web sites and signature files, that it could
be considered a consumer-generated brand content convention
of the Newton brand community, post-Apple.
Members also rework Apple advertising content in order to
create their own powerful meanings for the Newton. Consider
the example in Figure 3. The creator of this artifact has taken
branding and advertising conventions from a variety of sources,
including Apple (picture of Steve Jobs), Newton (Newton light
bulb icon), and the James Bond movie franchise (the titlea
play on Tomorrow Never Diesand the action images).
The resulting image simultaneously challenges the marketing
decision of Apple to abandon the Newton (note how Steve Jobs
occupies the position of the villain) and reminds Newton owners that their devices are far from dead. Indeed, the imagery of
this ad suggests the Newton is powerful, versatile and, to an
extent, sexy. These were properties Apple probably never intended for the brand. This ad resonates with the community to
this day. Several other Newton Web sites link to the image and
accompanying MIDI file (which plays the James Bond theme)
and a number of member signature files incorporate the tag

line Newton Never Dies (sometimes amending it to include

it just gets its batteries recharged). This is an important part
of the community-created meaning for the Newton brand. In
contrast, Apples ads for the Newton are typically referred to
derisively. Much consumer-generated content may be borne
of frustration with extant advertising efforts.
Such appropriation of these advertising and branding
conventions represents a subverting of the intended meaning to serve the meaning of a distinct group, in this case the
brand community. Riston, Elliott, and Eccles (1996) describe
the ways a lesbian group in the United Kingdom alters the
mainstream meaning of Scandinavian furnishing store IKEA
to create a subcultural identity. Similarly, Davidson (1992)
describes the ways heroin users in the United Kingdom reversed the meaning of a government-sponsored antiheroin
usage advertising campaign to make it into a celebration
of the heroin subculture. In the Newton community, these
subversive activities are intended to change the meaning of a
technology brand to make it better reflect their experience of
it. Researchers studying the adoption and long-term use of a
technology by groups call this process antiprogram (Akrich

Fall 2007

and Latour 1992, p. 260), a process by which a technological

product is remade into what the group wants (as opposed to
what the marketer intended). For example, Kline (2003) notes
the ways rural Americans negotiated new meanings for the
technological innovations of electrification and the telephone
in order to rid them of restrictive urban culture connotations
of appropriate use. What is noteworthy in the Newton community is that these processes are not limited to simply using
the product in novel ways. Members of the Newton community
also create various artifacts to elaborate on and reinforce these
uses and changed meanings. This represents an extension of
our understanding of antiprogram processes. Certainly, they
suggest that antiprogram activities may increasingly play out
in consumption collectives via consumer-generated content
and vigilante marketing.
Defending the Brand from the Competition and the
Larger Market
Many of these user-created objects express defiance toward
the larger market and other PDAs. Newton users recognize
the challenge of animating a brand for a technology that has
been discontinued for over nine years and act to protect the
Newton brand from external encroachments. This has been
demonstrated by several incidents in which the community
reacted to protect Newton branding conventions and signs.
In February of 2002, for example, a member posted a link to
a Web site whose logo looked suspiciously like a blatant copy
of the Newton logo of an illuminated light bulb. Researcher
field notes reveal that member reaction to this infraction was
swift and decisive:
One of the frequent posters has created a Web page where
you can compare [the offending companys] new logo with
the original Newton logo. Its a clever tool that allows you to
superimpose either logo over the other in order to judge the
amount of overlap. Makes it pretty clear that the images are
quite similar. (Researcher field notes, February 2002)

Once convinced by the comparison that the similarities

could not be accidental, other members e-mailed the offending company, asking if they were aware of the similarities.
Eventually, in a move widely regarded by the community
as a victory, the company removed the offending logo. Such
vigilant actions demonstrate the important symbolic power of
the logo and the ever-present fear of its loss. Members speak,
in sophisticated terms, of the need to prevent the dilution of
the brand and the death of the logo. Someone else using
the logo unchallenged would be a confirmation of sorts that
the brand was dead, despite the communitys best efforts to
keep it viable.
In addition to the amorphous larger market, the community
contests newer, competing PDAs, particularly the more suc-

193

cessful Palm. A 2002 Apple ad campaign entitled Switch

urged PC users to switch from the PC to the Macintosh. This
campaign caused quite a stir in the Apple community (Kahney
2002). It also resonated with many members of the Newton
community as many Newton users have switched from competing PDAs to the Newton. While discussing the Apple switch
campaign, one member issued a call for the community to put
together a Switch to Newton campaign that would use the
same themes and conventions, but would encourage consumers
to switch from competing PDAs to the Newton:
While sitting in the local Apple store last night, they were
playing the Switch ads on the presentation screen in back
and suddenly it hit me. I know that Im not the only one
here who has/is moved/moving from something else (a P*lm
usually) to (or back to) a newtie. So, anyone here who would
be interested in putting together some Switch ads of our
own extolling the virtues of the Newton? (Louis, listserv,
December 2002)

Note the use of the word ad in the call for this consumercreated content. The desired artifacts would be considered
advertisements for the Newton brand and community. This
is not uncommon.
An example of the content produced in response to this
call is presented in Figure 4. This artifact combines elements
of the Apple Switch campaign with the former advertising
spokesman for Dell Computers to urge readers to switch to the
Newton. While not of the highest professional quality, this ad
spawned favorable community discussion, with several members using it as the background image on their Newton screens.
The actions for brand-meaning creation in this example (as in
the James Bond-esque movie poster discussed earlier) represent
an interesting twist on the notion of advertising intertextuality. ODonohoe (1997) noted that the meanings derived from
advertising are greatly influenced by the consumption of other
texts. Thus, the ability to decode a particular ad and derive
meaning from it is often dependent on knowledge of another
source material, such as a particular popular movie or song.
Advertisers intentionally use intertextuality when creating ads
and consumers are able to accommodate it when consuming ads.
Here we see the consumers of this brand utilizing intertextuality in their collaborative meaning-creating endeavors. These
consumers are demonstrating much agility in their utilization
of the leaky boundaries (ODonohoe 1997, p. 257) between
advertising and other cultural texts via their appropriation of
content from those texts. These consumers are literate enough
in contemporary advertising principles to be able to use sophisticated conventions in the brand support content they create.
Such advanced advertising literacy (Ritson and Elliott 1995)
may explain the recent rise in vigilante marketing and related
consumer-generated content. Growing up in an advertisingsaturated culture may make writing ads relatively easy.

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FIGURE 4
Consumer-Created Ad Drawing from
Multiple Brand and Cultural Sources

Once again, the actions of the Newton brand community

in this regard have historical roots. Rather early on, members of the Newton community revealed themselves to be
sophisticated critics of Newton advertising. Several times,
members have suggested that Apple pay more attention to the
competition in their advertising for the Newton. Typically,
communal discussions followed concerning how this could
best be accomplished. Consider the following:
I think that at this point, Apple might hire some of the consultants who created Democratic and Republican attack ads
for the recent election. (Im sure someone will flame me for
encouraging the propagation of this kind of media negativity
to the computer realm, but so be it.) An Apple ad would show
a burly executive type open his little Casio job, breaking the
screen off. Then after, say, taping the hinge up with duct tape,
hed find that he cant really find any way to squeeze his large
fingers into the space of the keyboard. Another scene might
have him hailing a cab, and finding the feeble backlighting
rendering his screen illegible, stealing glances at the nice yellow glow of the Newton held by a sharply/elegantly dressed
competitor for a cab; of course, the cab would pass up someone using a WINCE job. And of course hed bust that teeny
insubstantial pen. Any other scenarios? (Mick, newsgroup,
November 1996)

Note the sophisticated suggestions for this hypothetical ad.

Also note the well-developed understanding of the typical

users of the different operating systems and the suggested

consequences for using the wrong brand. This proposal generated a number of positive responses, including alternative
scenarios for such a comparison ad.
While oppositional tendencies have been noted previously
in brand communities (Muiz and OGuinn 2001), they have
an added urgency in this brand community because the focal
brand is in real danger of disappearing, with its users migrating
to these platforms. As a result, the means of communicating
these oppositional notions have only become more pronounced
and vivid. Consider the example in Figure 5. With a style
reminiscent of Soviet propaganda posters, this object vividly
displays a members devotion to the Newton by suggesting
what effect switching to a Palm would have. The tendency to
position against the competition so vividly is most likely a
function of the threatened condition in which the community
operates. These artifacts not only express defiance toward the
larger market and the competition but also create unique
meanings. Moreover, such themes are common in consumergenerated content. Ives (2004) discusses the vigilante marketing surrounding Firefox Web browser, a brand that exists
in opposition to the market-dominating Microsoft Internet
Explorer. Much of the vigilante marketing created on behalf
of Firefox emphasizes oppositional brand loyalty themes (see
www.firefoxflicks.com for examples).
Boosting the Brand Community
The Newton community also needs to address threats from
within its ranks. As the devices age and their repair and extension become more difficult, user complacency, apathy, and
attrition are significant threats. Community boosterism is
important in the Newton community, as it is in most communities (Delaney 1995; Strauss 1961), particularly those
that have been abandoned (Leigh, Peters, and Shelton 2006;
Muiz and Schau 2005). Communities need shared symbols
and content for consensus (Janowitz 1952, p. 71). From time
to time, various members of the community challenge other
users. Recall the Switch artifact discussed earlier (also see the
Powerbook example discussed subsequently). Both were the
result of calls challenging members to come up with their own
Newton ads. Both also resulted in multiple documents that
developed unique meanings for the Newton brand. Members
need to be challenged in order to energize the community
and keep it vital. Sometimes user-created content is explicitly
designed to address this need. These range from stream-ofconsciousness testimonials with titles like Confessions of a
Newton Junkie, to more carefully scripted efforts.
In one instance, a member invited other Newton users to
create texts mimicking the old Powerbook ads where people
talked about what system they had and what they had on there
(John, posted to his Newton Web site). The Apple Powerbook

Fall 2007

195

FIGURE 5
Consumer-Created Ad Emphasizing Oppositional Brand Loyalty Themes

ads of concern were textual in nature and featured data on a

different Powerbook user, including why they bought a Powerbook and how they used it. Consider the example in Figure
6. This is one of several user creations offered in response to
the above invitation. The user-created Newton versions demonstrate what attributes and uses consumers truly value and
would highlight to convince new users to adopt.
Another example of boosting the community can be found
in the Newtons around the world gallery. A member of the
community noted that iPod users had started a collection of
images called iPods around the world, in which iPod users
take pictures of their iPods in exotic and mundane settings
(see Gallery.ipodlounge.com). Another member responded
and challenged members of the Newton community to do
the same with their Newtons. The call was enthusiastically
answered, with contributors talking about the importance of
supporting the greater good via their efforts. Currently, the
gallery features over 170 images, showing Newtons in such
places as Disney World (see Figure 7), Niagara Falls, Tokyo,
Japan, and Wellington, New Zealand, with the Newtons being
used in a variety of tasks from conducting interviews to counting electronic parts. It is a very communal and collaborative
process. Members push one another to come up with more

powerful images and the results are pointed to and discussed

with excitement. The take-away from these images is clear: The
Newton is far from dead, as there are Newton users all around
the world, using their Newtons for all kinds of purposes.
These practices continue. In early June 2005, over seven
and a half years after Apple had discontinued the Newton, a
member posted on the listserv a link to a movie he had created
for the Newton community. The creator took parts from old
television ads for the Newton, edited and rearranged them
and added new narration, music, and visuals. We contacted
and interviewed this member of the community to ask about
his creation. His comments confirm our interpretation that
such artifacts are designed to fill the void left by the lack of
advertising for the brand and to push members of the community to do more.
OWEN: Everybody was sure the Newton was coming back
in some new incarnation, and a lot of people came up with
these, cobbled together, what they thought it would be. And I
think in my movie, and I dont even remember where I got it
from, the last image that I have is somebodys thing called the
iPad. I wanted to make a call to somebody, and [say] Apple,
cmon! If everybody sees this and what it could do, I mean
the satellite going, and the writing and it can fax, and speak to

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The Journal of Advertising

FIGURE 6
Consumer-Created Ad Mimicking Prior Apple Campaign
Name: Mitch
Occupation: Veterinary Student
Newton: MP 110 (right now), getting an MP 2100 soon
Why I bought a Newton: I saw the MP 110 in a pawn shop, and thought it looked cool. It was also cheap. =) I was thinking
about a Palm, but the Newton is a lot better than the Palms Ive seen. I then read about the MP2100, and started drooling.
Luckily, I found a friend of mine who hasnt used his in forever, and bought it off of him. =)
What I love about the Newton: I love the laptop abilities in a smaller package. I will love the ability to use Ethernet.. =)
What I dislike: Steve Jobs. =) No, I think Apple was stupid for canceling them. Id like a smaller form factor, and I wish
there were more device drivers. I wish the interconnect port was more available. =)
Carrying case: The Apple Leather one for my 110.
Strangest place Ive ever used my Newton: None yet. =) Im planning on doing an externship to Great Britain next year,
and Ill probably take my MP2100 along.
Whats on my Newton: Mystic 8 Ball, SoloDX, and whatever the Othello for OS1.3 is (I cant remember the name). (Mitch,
Web site, 2000)

FIGURE 7
Consumer-Generated Brand Promoting Image

laser printers . . . So if thats good for our community, I hope

so, you know, maybe we should all make movies and start
sending them to Apple. Thats why I said in my little blurb at
the end of my movie, you know, use the Newton community
as a sales force, you dont even have to hire anybody. Use the
Newton community as the sales force. . . . It didnt take a
lot of thought because I just love the platform and its just a
question of putting together my little story line.
I: [Laughs]
OWEN: I mean, quite frankly, Im almost, Im not completely
not serious about it, I mean, one of the things I found so exhilarating about the computers these days and what we can do
is delivering video on the Internet. I mean, its very accessible.
If we can, video is compelling. It might be something that
people are encouraged to go seek out and wanna look at.
I: So you think it could be an effective promotional tool?
OWEN: Absolutely. Everybody loves video. (Owen, male,
interview)

This artifact certainly made an impact on the community,

producing positive reactions sent directly to the creator (great
job, made my day, may the green shine upon you)2 and
extending into discussion in the forums. Consider the following response:
That was soooo good, almost made me cry. Well done, Owen.
I even loved the music, which is something from a classical
bassoonist. It was only coincidence that I was wearing my
black Newton T-shirt and black linen jeans (bare feet tho).
LOL, Marie. (female, listserv, July 2005)

Fall 2007

Reaction to this video was so great that the creator began work
on another one, soliciting the group for help in the form of
ideas and images of their Newtons in use.
Many of the efforts at brand community boosterism are an
attempt to legitimate the community and the values on which
it is predicated (Hummon 1990; Leigh, Peters, and Shelton
2006; Muiz and Schau 2005; Strauss 1961). Leigh, Peters, and
Shelton (2006) note that extensive restoration and maintenance
projects undertaken by MG drivers legitimize both individual
members and the community itself. Similar things are at
work here. In the Newton community, core values include a
strong do-it-yourself ethic and a mastery over technology. By
reifying these values, members of the Newton community
are creating their own powerful brand meanings to reenergize
the brand, perpetuate the community, and delay the onset of
obsolescence. These activities are an example of what Mick and
Fournier (1998) call technology consumption confrontation
strategies. Such strategies are intended to allow consumers a
feeling of control over technology. One such strategy is mastering. Mastering evokes a metaphorical frame of hierarchy and
power (p. 138). In the creation and deployment of powerful
images and texts, members of the Newton brand community
are imposing control over an increasingly chaotic product and
brand. In so doing, they are attempting to inoculate the brand
against obsolescence. Granted, the consumers of this study are
undoubtedly more technologically advanced and market-savvy
than the consumers studied by Mick and Fournier (1998).
Still, the strategies displayed here offer a new twist on their
findings, as they demonstrate how these processes play out
in communal consumption settings, via consumer-generated
content, and in vigilante marketing.
The actions of the Newton community in this regard have
historical roots. Rather early on (while Apple was still producing the device), members of the Newton brand community
diverged from the marketer in terms of what the Newton
should be. Their divergence included product modification,
the creation of alternative brand meanings, and the creation
of new applications. The Newton community first contested
the marketers definition of the product, and then refashioned
the product and brand as they saw fit. After the Newton was
discontinued, the location of text production shifted to the
consumer (Mitussis and Elliott 1999) and these same consumers created their own meanings, stressing the properties
that they felt were most relevant. The historical roots of this
consumer-generated content probably fostered the culture of
innovation (Zien and Buckler 1997) that has been necessary
for the Newton brand community to continually innovate the
product to this day. If so, vigilante marketing may play an
important role in encouraging user innovation (Von Hippel
2005). Vigilante marketing may offer user-innovators emotional support for their efforts while providing reassurance to
the adopters of consumer-created innovations. The historical

197

roots of these activities may also go a long way to explaining

the quantity of consumer-generated content encountered in
the Newton brand community. All of this suggests that a few
instances of consumer-generated content may precipitate many
more instances in the future.
DISCUSSION
This research examines vigilante marketing by analyzing
consumer-generated, brand-centered communications in the
brand community centered on the Apple Newton, a product
that was discontinued by the marketer over nine years ago.
The consumers of the abandoned Apple Newton brand are now
charged with responsibility for the entire brand-sustaining
experience: modifying, repairing and innovating the product,
as well as creating and sustaining brand meaning and community. As part of these activities, members engage in vigilante marketing. They create brand artifacts, many of which
explicitly resemble advertisements, to bind the community
together, reify its values and beliefs, and continually revitalize
the product. Moreover, they are quite skilled in these activities,
successfully mimicking the styles, tropes, logic, and grammar
of advertising for both Apple and other brands. What we see
in the Newton brand community dovetails nicely with the
recent proliferation of customer evangelism that goes by many
names, including homebrew ads (Kahney 2004b), folk ads
(OGuinn 2003), open source branding (Garfield 2005), and
vigilante marketing (Ives 2004). The findings reported in
this paper, taken together with these new marketplace behaviors, have importantperhaps revolutionaryimplications
for advertising theory and practice.
Consumer-Generated Content
We have long known that consumers create their own meaning
for ads (Mick and Buhl 1992). Sometimes, these meanings are
quite removed from those intended by the marketer (Kates
2002). We also know that some consumers deliberately subvert the meanings created by marketers (OGuinn and Muiz
2005; Ritson, Elliott, and Eccles 1996). More recently, we have
begun to see evidence that in such meaning-creation efforts,
consumers can mimic the conventions of advertising (Flight
2005; Garfield 2005; Ives 2004). Owing to cheaper desktop
audio, video, and animation software, consumers can easily
create promotional content that rivals that which is produced
professionally. Moreover, via the Internet, such creations can
be quickly and inexpensively shared with a multitude of others. Vigilante marketing has already been seen for multiple
brands such as Apple, Coke, Firefox, Molson, and Volkswagen (Flight; Ives 2004; Kahney 2004b). Some of it has been
quite sophisticated (Garfield 2005). By several accounts, the
tendency for consumers to create their own advertisements

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The Journal of Advertising

for the brands they like is only going to increase (Jaffe 2005).
There is already at least one Web site business devoted to it
(see www.adcandy.com). What we see in the Newton brand
community is the logical extreme of such consumer meaning
creation: consumers attempting to create meanings for a brand
that is no longer advertised. This research demonstrates that
consumers are, and have been, quite capable of a variety of these
actions. Consumers, especially those who are members of brand
communities, are more than able to be skillful, proficient, and
prolific in the creation of vigilante advertising content. There
is no reason to doubt that the practice will spread beyond the
examples contained herein.
These are noteworthy developments. At the very least,
they push the boundaries of consumer meaning production
to their furthest limits. Newton consumers are not cocreating
meaning; they are sole-authoring it. Less conservatively, these
findings suggest something far more revolutionarya change
in the status quo with respect to the definition and practice
of advertising. For starters, these findings portend a shift in
control. Brand communities, such as those centered on the
Newton, the iPod, or Mozilla Firefox, are shifting power away
from advertisers who create and control one-way marketing
communication and giving it to consumers. Findings such
as those reported here lend credence to the claims, from a
growing chorus of voices, that the institution of advertising is
imperiled (Garfield 2005; Jaffe 2005; Shultz 2005). Granted,
many of these changes will not be felt overnight. Still, many
are having very real impacts now. Either way, it may be time
to develop a new definition of advertising, one that accommodates user-generated content.
On the practical side, these findings also have some obvious implications for advertising managers. First, there are
implications for the advertising of technology. Consumers and
their social groups do not always accept the meanings and uses
presented in advertising by the manufacturers of new technologies. Sometimes, these products and their uses and meanings
are subject to processes of deinscription and antiprogram
(Akrich 1992; Akrich and Latour 1992), in which the intended
uses and meanings are rejected and renegotiated. Despite the
prevalence of these practices, no technology studies to date have
explicitly looked at the role of consumer meaning-creation activities in deinscription and antiprogram activities. Most have
focused on usage behavior (i.e., consumers using the product
in novel and unintended ways). None have shown consumers
actively creating advertising-like artifacts to counter the meanings suggested by the marketer. The Newton community not
only deinscribed and antiprogrammed the Newton via their
usage patterns but also created stories, images, and videos that
supported and elaborated on these new usages. This research
suggests that vigilante marketing can be an important site for
these behaviors. Similar things may be happening with the
consumer-generated content created by iPod fans (Ives 2004;

Kahney 2004b). iPod users have already created applications

that extend those devices far beyond what Apple intended.
Vigilante marketing may allow them to augment the meanings
of the iPod to reinforce those extensions.
This research also underscores the importance of unique
brand meanings suggested by previous research, but adds a
new caveat. The importance of unique brand meanings may,
at first glance, seem obvious. However, it appears to be of
such tremendous importance as to deserve deeper exploration.
Consider the following brands: Jeep and Harley Davidson
(McAlexander, Schouten, and Koening 2002), Macintosh and
Saab (Belk and Tumbat 2002; Muiz and OGuinn 2001), Star
Wars and Volkswagen (Brown, Kozinets, and Sherry 2003),
and Xena: Warrior Princess (Schau and Muiz 2002). All of
these brands have unique and powerful meanings and all have
strong, deeply devoted brand communities. In all of these
communities, members occasionally take partial control of the
brand to create idiosyncratic meanings beyond those suggested
by the marketer. Now consider the brands for which we have
seen vigilante marketing. They, too, have been characterized
by unique brand meanings. Unique brand meanings are important because they appear to offer consumers more space for
supplemental meaning creation.
The Newton was afforded some powerful and unique meanings via the parent brand, Apple. These meanings had been
a part of user-created, brand-promotional content since the
earliest days of the community. Since being abandoned, the
Apple Newton brand community has continually endeavored
to create unique and compelling meanings, most of which go
well beyond what Apple originally suggested. Most of the
members we interviewed note that the community has done
a better job of defining and elaborating the essence of the
Newton brand than Apple did; they simply think the community understands it better. This research suggests that not
only are unique and powerful brand meanings a crucial part
of the brand community; they may also play an important
role in fostering vigilante marketing. When properly inspired
and left to their own devices, brand enthusiasts will strive to
create such strong and unique meanings. Clearly, this is what
is happening in the iPod community. Members are building
on the meanings offered by Apple in order to develop more
idiosyncratic meanings.
This research also reinforces the importance of following
the conversation about the brand that takes place among consumers. This research suggests that marketers should listen to
and understand what their consumers are saying, particularly
when those consumers are embedded in a brand community.
This assertion seems commonsensical, and others have echoed
this sentiment, saying there is still much to be learned from
consumer-generated content (Garfield 2005; Morrissey 2005).
This is not to say that the advertiser should blindly accept and
follow the communitys wishes. However, when there are large

Fall 2007

discrepancies between what the community believes about

the brand (as expressed via consumer-generated content) and
the way that the advertising is positioning the brand, then
clearly something is wrong. Given the discrepancy between
the way Apple positioned the Newton and the ways in which
consumers used it, it appears that Apple could have obtained
some useful ideas by listening to the community. At the very
least, listening to the community could have helped Apple
fine-tune their ads for the Newton. Given that users of a wide
variety of products and services frequently use, innovate, and
develop those offerings in novel ways and that these ways often
become the standard (von Hippel 2005), this advice might be
worth further consideration.
Apple appears to be aware of these possibilities and has not
attempted to block or restrict any of the consumer-generated
iPod content (Garfield 2005). Indeed, there is the distinct
possibility that they are closely following the conversation in
order to divine future advertising campaigns and product enhancements (Meyers 2005). In a less technical realm, Jeep has
followed a similar strategy and has been enormously successful.
Jeep looked to its brand community and user-created brand
content to create ads that resonated with the existing community and appealed to potential Jeep drivers. For example,
the successful 2002 Jeep advertising campaign, Jenny, was
inspired by the Jeep brand community. With a lot of Jeep
owners theres a certain saying and youll see it on Jeep bumper
stickersIts a Jeep thing, you wouldnt understand. A lot of
Jenny takes its inspiration from that (Jeep brand manager
Pearl Davies, quoted in Ferriss 2002). Jeep owners created
content that expressed what the brand meant to them. This
content was then distributed in bumper stickers, T-shirts,
newsletters, and Web sites. Jeep recognized the appeal of this
content and successfully leveraged it to promote the brand.
Taking this idea a step further offers another practical,
though perhaps controversial, suggestion for advertisers: Give
consumers the tools and encourage them to create advertising
content for your brand. Our findings suggest consumers are
quite savvy in their understanding of the styles, tropes, logic,
and grammar of advertising. Newton consumers demonstrate
high levels of advertising literacy (Ritson and Elliott 1995) via
their mastery of such advertising conventions as intertextuality
(ODonohoe 1997) and oppositional brand loyalty (Muiz and
Hamer 2001). Such advanced literacy is also evident in much
of the vigilante marketing seen for other brands. This creative
expertise should be leveraged. A few major consumer brands
appear to have already taken this advice (Morrissey 2005).
MasterCard created a Web site (www.priceless.com) that invited consumers to create copy to accompany two television
commercials in their Priceless campaign and Converse used
several consumer-generated commercials as part of their most
recent television campaign (Bosman 2006). Both campaigns
were generally considered successful.

199

Chevrolet, however, provides the most interesting example.

Chevrolet gave consumers the tools (video clips, music, and
customizable titles) to create video ads for the Chevy Tahoe
that were then available for viewing on the Web (Neisser
2006). While some of the resulting ads were quite effective
promotional messages, they were far from unanimously positive (many were anti-SUV in tone). This example is noteworthy
because it illustrates vividly both the opportunities and the
challenges in giving consumers creative control. There are
significant risks as well as benefits. Still, some practitioners
believe that even negative consumer-generated content has
utility, as it offers valuable insight (New Media Age 2006). For
their part, Chevrolet did not attempt to quell or remove any of
the negative Tahoe content, claiming to have anticipated the
possibility (Bosman 2006). Either way, consumer-generated
content and vigilante marketing are not going to go away
(Jaffee 2005). Advertisers should accept this fact and act accordingly. The revolution wont be televised. Instead, it will
be expertly rendered and edited by dedicated users, and then
distributed via e-mail and YouTube.
Finally, our research also provides suggestions for using advertising to build or reinforce a strong brand community. Communities united by a central challenge appear to be stronger.
The Newton brand community underscores the importance of
such a tension. Advertisers may wish to create or emphasize a
common challenge or source of tension via strong oppositional
brand loyalty (Muiz and OGuinn 2001). Thus, advertisers
may wish to stress an us versus them mentality. Coke and
Pepsi do this, and it appears to be effective in generating and
reinforcing their rivalry (Muiz and Hamer 2001). A variation on this strategy is to play up an underdog status. This is,
after all, the exact type of tension that DDB touted in their
famous VW Beetle campaign when they positioned the Bug
relative to the larger, more stylish domestic cars of the day (Fox
1984). Volkswagen deployed a series of us versus the rest of
the market messages and created a strong brand community
around the Bug and VW. It should also be noted that this
strategy has already been deployed in much of the vigilante
marketing efforts for Firefox. Most of the advertising-relevant
artifacts created by members of that community emphasize
both the browsers rivalry with Microsofts Internet Explorer
and its underdog status.
Directions for Future Research
The realm of consumer-generated content represents an extremely rich area for future research. There is much to be
explored, as most of what is known is anecdotal. Outside of
this paper, there have been no academic studies exploring this
phenomenon. Potential topics include measuring consumer
response (perhaps via instruments used to assess traditional
advertising response), the impact of such consumer-generated

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The Journal of Advertising

content on received brand image, and strategies for reactions

to consumer-generated content by advertisers. This data will
be readily available as these processes continue to develop and
spread. The brand community centered on the Mozilla Firefox
Web browser is already encouraging an entire user-created
promotional campaign. Undoubtedly, there will be increasing numbers of such examples. The realm of antibrand brand
communities (Aron and Muiz 2002; Hollenbeck and Zinkhan
2006) and vigilante marketing is also ripe for exploration.
Consumers who dislike a particular brand can also mimic the
conventions of that brand when creating antibrand content.
Similarly, the role of consumer-generated content in user innovation (von Hippel 2005) is also open for future research. Vigilante
marketing may play a role in both the perpetuation and promotion of this behavior. Finally, the intersection of advertising and
the inscription and deinscription of technology goods may be a
good area for future exploration, as many of these activities may
play out in the realm of consumer-generated content.
NOTE
1. It should be noted that despite this prevailing belief in the
community, outside analysts have identified other causes for the
Newtons failure (Tesler 2001).
2. The Newton body is green, as is the backlight for the
screen.

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