That's the question Advertising Age's Michael Bush asks in a story today. By creating their own original content and hosting it online on their own websites and sites like Facebook and Youtube, companies are increasingly going direct to the consumer.

This is in line with a recent survey we highlighted last week that revealed 86% of companies are creating or plan to create original content. Bush cites companies including Best Buy, MasterCard and Proctor and Gamble.

"Sometimes mainstream [media] can't keep up with the needs of the company to get stuff out," said Andrew Foote, senior VP in the digital media practice at Cohn & Wolfe. Foote works on the Mastercard account, which has gone the "low-production route," wrote Bush, citing Flip cam videos being posted directly to Youtube.