Who says traditional advertising is dying? It's not! People are using it to promote their online advertising! More and more frequently ads are popping up on billboards, shopping bags, TV, newspapers, magazines, etc to promote company's social media account on Facebook, Twitter, or even online review sites like Yelp.
It's a good way for businesses to encourage their brand advocates to join the business online and help enhance the brand there as well. It's also a good way to reach an audience that might not normally find you online. For example, businesses might be able to encourage their older demographic of 50+ year-old consumers to actually follow their brand online which normally wouldn't do so without discovering the call-to-action in some form of traditional media.
Here's an example of a town that took the look and feel of a Facebook ad and made it into a billboard ad to invite people to join their chamber online.
Tweet Street
@little_break Twitter Newspaper Ad
Ashton Kutcher Billboard Ad
Katie Couric @katiecouric TV Ad
So the question is: "Can social media save traditional advertising?" No. But it's amusing to see these lines blurred and to see social media aid in the profit of offline advertising a bit.