"The Greatest Movie Ever Sold"

Super-Size Me, we have all heard the catch phrase or seen the movie, and now director of Super-Size me, Michael Barker, has embarked on a new, rather hypcritical endeavor.

The movie is about product placements and advertising, while being paid for by product placements and advertising. Ironic?

Barker seeks to unveil the idea of product placement and branded content which has overtaken Hollywood entertainment and advertising. The documentary itself will include interviews and showcases of how a movie gets funded by product placements, while funding the production through just that. Barker explores the privacy of advertising in our era and furthers to shock the audience by presenting the argument that they are being advertised to while watching the documentary.

The documentary stands to be interesting if nothing else, and potentially increase audiences media literacy.

Blog Exercise 4

Advergames, a seemingly meaningless word is taking over the child population rapidly, and bringing large criticism with it. Advergames are advertisements which are dressed up as games, therefore becoming more appealing to children and urging them to participate. Food companies such as General Mills and Post have engaged in the advergames industry, furthering the popularity of gamification. Parents, nutritionists, and the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) are beginning to crack down on this form of advertising which is being aimed directly towards children. Although there are strict regulations on advertising to youths, this harmless form of interaction with the brand through games does not violate any set regulations. Many of these games resemble popular online Disney games; and instead of paying a monthly subscription fee, one just has to put up with the annoying advertisement plugs throughout the game.

In her article “Kids don’t recognize advergames as advertising” Helen Leggatt explains that when children are playing these games, they are completely oblivious that they are being exposed to advertisements. Through a research study conducted by the New York Times, it was found that children hardly ever identify the game as anything other than that; only ten percent of all the participants were able to correctly identify the game as a virtual advertisement.

This idea of advergames is a smart tactic for the industry; they are able to reach their target audience without infringing on any regulations. From another standpoint, however, these games could be seen as deceptive, or subliminal due to their concealed manner in which they advertise. I think that as long as the FTC keeps watchful eye on the strategy of advergames, than they do not stand to be harmful. However, when they become unregulated, there lies a problem with ethics and advertising to youths.

Blog Exercise 3

In 2009, the New York Times published a story about the products containing a special chemical called Resveratrol. This chemical, found in grape skins and red wine was rumored to incread ones life span, improve eyesight, and other obvious misconceptions. After being featured on several shows, (60 minutes, the Oprah Winfrey show) many false claims and celebrity endorsements were linked with the product. These false claims, made by FWM Laboratories, were slammed by bloggers, celebrities, and officials alike.

However, this is not where the problem lies...

After the NY Times wrote this story, it was found published on their site alongside an ad for the Resveratrol product they were warning against. Hypocritical? I think so.

The Times was actually profiting off of this advertisement for the product which they were urging consumers NOT to buy. To worsen the matter, there were six more Google sponsored advertisements for Resveratrol throughout the page.

So whos to blame?

The Times is assuming no responsibility for the obvious hypocrisy featured on their site. Instead, they avert their frustration for the mistake to the advertising department; which they say needs to tighten up their security of which advertisement are displayed on the site.

This blatant mistake may lead readers of the Times to consider that the information they thought credible no longer is, and potentially hurt the papers reputation. The moral of this story urges readers to take a closer look at the information and advertisements that they are being exposed to, instead of taking them at face value.

Facebook gets new friends...

As of February of this year, more than a third of all online display ads in the US appeared on Facebook. However, they havent reached anywhere near the budgets of other marketers. This is partly because their rates are so low, and partly because of its complicated navigation for in-house buying of ads. Therefore, a new set of Facebook agencies are looking to offer marketers a simpler way of buying ad space on Facebook. These agencies plan on finding a way to have marketers match their ads to user data and intent. While this means more annoying sidebar ads for Facebook users, it will hopefully lead to a larger ad revenue for Facebook-holding off any suspicions of having to pay for usage of the site.

Dumb Luck

Product placement is one of the most effective forms of advertising. A placement can reward a corporation with thousands of dollars and potential loyal consumers of whatever the product may be. But who ever thought that Jennifer Aniston would be a spokesperson for Honda? Earlier this year Ms. Aniston was featured on the View to promote her latest movie; around the same time, buzz was starting about how the actress was looking to purchase a multi-million dollar house in Greenwich Village. While guest starring on the show, one of the hosts handed Aniston a copy of the paper, commenting on the buzz about her move. On the back of the paper was Honda's full page advertisement. Through a stroke of dumb luck, Honda was immediately product placed for all of Aniston's fans to see. Although its impossible to tell whether the sales of Honda vehicles has any correlation to Aniston's placement, it benefited Honda in a way no one could have predicted. “Thank god that we went with a full-page ad that day. If we had orchestrated the whole thing, we couldn’t have done it so well,” Brian Benstock, Paragon Honda’s general manager, said.

It's all about the Benjamins...

I chose two Social Media websites for my second exercise. One of which is a blogging site, and another which offers users the chance to make money off of social media. The Social Media website answers the question of how social media can drive revenue. Therefore, it unites professionals in the following areas: gaming, virtual goods, mobile, marketing and media. A two day conference is set up in which all of these professionals can meet and discuss the different ways in which social media plays a role in their area of experience. Ultimately, attendees leave the two day conference having learned how to utilize social media from all aspects in order to generate revenue in their particular specialty. Socialize, the website, also provides insight into how to maximize from the tool of social media. As explained in the section titled “Socialize is about results” MediaBistro states, “Social media is a whirlwind. It’s amazing at times and terrifying at others.It’s a tool that people and businesses can use to fill many needs, both on a personal and professional basis. Every day another innovative use or important application emerges that can change lives from the most minute detail up to influencing the events of the world.”

The social media blog, appropriately titled “Soshable” discusses all the current social media trends. As their tagline states, “People shoshalize. They don’t care how it’s spelled. They just do it.” The blog suggests ways to keep up with, utilize, and criticize social media. Overall, the blog gives background information while the website, Socialize, teaches how to use the background information. “Social media is a whirlwind. It’s amazing at times and terrifying at others. It’s a tool that people and businesses can use to fill many needs, both on a personal and professional basis. Every day another innovative use or important application emerges that can change lives from the most minute detail up to influencing the events of the world.”These two sites feature a larger pattern of society in which we find innovative new technologies and then explore ways in which to benefit monetarily off of these new technologies. We investigate these new media technologies, and become skilled professionals on their use, and once we make the technology absolutely imperative to society, we make a profit off of them. Soshable is the cause, in the sense that social media has become a popular entity in our community, and Socialize is the effect; meaning that because social media has become so prominent, we must now find a way to benefit from its wide usage.

Transparent Advertising?

Recently Yahoo! has introduced its trial of a new transparent advertising that they hope will not only benefit the industry, but the consumer as well. This new launch, which is being tested in Europe, now gives consumers the choice of which advertisements they want to see as well as why the consumer was specifically targeted.

By clicking on an interactive button included on the sidebar advertisements, users can view who is behind the advertisement as well as why it was chosen for them. It also explains what personal data is being shown to industries and why they chose that data.

Justin Weiss, the privacy director at Yahoo says, "The idea of a visual symbol in and around every ad we show is to remind users that their information is being used and to give them a portal, a pathway, into what data is being used and the controls they have over them.”