I wouldn't take a brillo pad to em. Brillo pads are pretty coarse and may scratch the wheel more than it helps. They were made for cast iron skillets. They work wonders for tires though. And using carbon steel on aluminum is never really a good idea. It may actually speed up the corrosion. Carbon and aluminum go hand in hand like hemorrhoids and horseback riding.
A fine stainless steel, brass or even stiff nylon brush will work. It will be slow going. The kind for a Dremel would be best and save on elbow grease (you'll need that later to polish em). Spray the area with a solvent first, preferably an aluminum/mag wheel cleaner for starters since they are formulated for that sort of thing. Mothers makes some good products. Their wheel polish, its like a cream, will probably work in leau of the cleaner/solvent, but it's hard to say without knowing the extent of the corrosion. Stainless steel wool will work too, but it has to be fine and it will be much slower.
If you use too coarse a brush or wool it will look blemished or dull where the corrosion was, and you will have a new monster to tackle. Try the Mothers polish to see if it will shine up to your liking. Unless you used a grill brush or 80 grit sandpaper, odds are it will shine on up. Otherwise you will have to go to progressively finer with the material (brush, wool, sandpaper) until it is nice and shiny. Maybe even a rubbing compound.
When you get the corrosion out use the polish and elbow grease and get to polishing. A simple terry towel or wash rag will work, probably take several actually, but Mothers makes a sponge type thingy that goes in a drill that helps. Good ole polished wheels are a pain to keep em shiny. When you wash your ride, polish them wheels.
Don't have a Dremel? Harbor freight has a small rotary tool kit that comes with brushes and polishing discs for less than 20 bucks. It won't hold up for bigger jobs but should work just fine for brushing a little rust.
My GMC stock wheels got some sort of corrosion while in storage. Actually looked like a bug chewed around on it or some sort of acid etched it. Don't know for sure, I never tried getting it out because I don't use the wheels.
A more extreme alternative I have used in the past on polished aluminum is air conditioner coil cleaner. You can buy it at an HVAC shop. I am not recommending it mind ya, use it only for extreme cases. It is an acid and needs to be diluted. Too much will "whiten" your wheels. It is best to have your wheel laying flat on the ground if you decide to go that route or you will get black streaks trickling down from the lug nuts that is really hard to remove. I say again, I am not recommending this.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Mike
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