I think I’ve found the absolute teen Dream Job. No, the absolute Dream Job for anyone at any age. Being paid to shop and to show the world what you bought and why you bought it. That’s exactly what the teen stars of YouTube “hauls” do. They produce show-and-tell videos about their latest “haul” from the mall. Almost 159,000 hauls have been posted to the channel. And this week, JC Penney joins teen-oriented companies like Forever 21 and American Eagle in using this YouTube phenomena as a core marketing strategy to capture their part of this fall’s expected $50 billion “back to school” consumer spend.

JC Penney retained six teen girls from across the nation to create their new back to school haul videos (jcp.com/teen). The haulers were given free transportation, lodging and JCP gift cards and let loose in a store near Penney’s headquarters in Plano, Texas. And now they’re showing — and telling about — what they purchased at JCP to gear up for the new term.

Any person with a webcam can become a haul video expert. Tennessee “haulers” Elle and Blair Fowler are the teen pioneers of hauling and have attracted such a following of their peers and the moms of their peers that they’re now in high demand by marketers of everything from fashion to cosmetics.

Haul videos can focus on the results of shopping at a specific retailer or for a specific product category. Imagine the opportunity to take the haul concept beyond the teen market.  Why shouldn’t a marketer or retailer of “all things baby” recruit a team of moms to talk about the latest product trends and actually demonstrate product features? Wouldn’t a grocery chain want a team of people-who-love-to-entertain to post videos that feature their supermarket shopping haul for a specific event they’re hosting – even sharing the recipes that necessitated the trip?  How about having some of the most avid DIYers haul about their last shopping spree at the hardware, building supply or paint store?

Since marketers are taking the original authentic YouTube phenomena to a more commercial consumer-generated concept, under Federal Trade Commission guidelines, paid haulers must disclose in the video if they got free products or other compensation from retailers.  So the real question is: Will commercializing consumer-generated content, like hauls, come to have the same trust as non-commercialized YouTube content or the same mistrust as traditional advertising?

What do you think?