Digital Product Placement, the Ad Industry, & Kenney's Truth in Advertising

From Monday's BBC article "Digital product placement creates adverts out of thin air:"

[P]roduct placement isn't new...  Recently Heineken scored a coup by persuading James Bond to choose its beer over a vodka martini in Skyfall.

However, digital placement is fundamentally different in that the product you see on screen was never there in the first place. Editors can drop whatever they like, wherever they like, into programmes or films during the post-production process....

"These are not just logos, they can be video, signage and products, even cars," explains Mark Popkiewicz..."For example beverages are placed as open cans or bottles with glasses containing the beverage alongside - that way they look like they are being consumed... The technology is capable of placing or replacing moving objects and even replacing products being handled by actors like mobile phones... Early trials show almost double the engagements of traditional campaigns... This is because when a consumer watches a show they are not 'defensive' against advertising as they might be with advertising online or commercials on TV - they are in 'receive mode' and are not blocking."...

For a novel about the ad industry, try Truth in Advertising by John Kenney:

Finbar Dolan is lost and lonely. Except he doesn’t know it. Despite escaping his blue-collar Boston upbringing to carve out a mildly successful career at a Madison Avenue ad agency, he’s a bit of a mess and closing in on forty. He’s recently called off a wedding. Now, a few days before Christmas, he’s forced to cancel a long-postponed vacation in order to write, produce, and edit a Super Bowl commercial for his diaper account in record time.

Fortunately, it gets worse. Fin learns that his long-estranged and once-abusive father has fallen ill. And that neither of his brothers or his sister intend to visit. It’s a wake-up call for Fin to reevaluate the choices he’s made, admit that he’s falling for his coworker Phoebe, question the importance of diapers in his life, and finally tell the truth about his past.

Reality TV & Peltier's Reality Boulevard

From today's BBC article "French reality TV doctor kills himself after contestant dies:"

A doctor who worked on French adventure reality TV show Koh Lanta has killed himself in Cambodia after one of the programme's contestants died. In a suicide note, Thierry Costa, 38, said his name had been "sullied by the media" over the death of Gerald Babin a week ago. Mr Babin had a heart attack during filming on the island of Koh Rong. Some media reports had criticised Dr Costa, saying he had taken too much time to treat the 25-year-old. Mr Babin had complained of cramps on the first day of filming on the southern Cambodian island on 22 March. Dr Costa administered emergency care before Mr Babin was airlifted to a mainland hospital where he died. French authorities have launched a preliminary investigation into Mr Babin's death. Broadcaster TF1 announced last week it would axe the popular show, described as France's version of Survivor, in response to his death.

For a novel about reality television, try Reality Boulevard by Melissa Jo Peltier:

When Oscar-winning producer Marty Maltzman’s award-winning non-fiction series Lights and Sirens is suddenly cancelled after 16 seasons, the quirky documentary film-maker and his colorful staff find themselves unemployed and out on the streets in an artificial new Hollywood filled with Kardashians, Survivors and Real Housewives. As the collection of oddball characters adapt to a surreal world where the lines between truth and lies are blurred – both on and off the screen – this darkly funny novel reveals an insider’s view of Hollywood and Reality TV.

Indigenous Australians & Pilkington's Follow The Rabbit-Proof Fence

I’ve posted about Native American tribes in the US. Now let’s take a look at the experience of indigenous Australians.

Here's Monday’s BBC article “Living Black: Australia's trail-blazing indigenous show:”

Australia's trailblazing indigenous TV programme "Living Black" is celebrating a decade of bringing stories of triumph, resilience and tragedy to a national audience. The country's longest-running indigenous news and current affairs show has survived tight budgets and management changes to become a beacon of broadcasting in a country where indigenous life can be ignored by the mainstream media. 

"It is a unique programme that is filling a void," said Karla Grant, presenter and executive producer at the Living Black studio in Sydney. "No one else is doing the stories that we do." "We are closer to the issue because we may have faced it within our own families. Our programme gives indigenous people a voice right across the country," she said. 

The programme's small production crew is responsible for 26 episodes each year that aim to give in-depth coverage of social justice, employment, health, and housing issues. All are areas of crisis that make Australia's first peoples its most disadvantaged.

For a novel about Aboriginal Australians, try Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington:

The remarkable true story of three young girls who cross the harsh Australian desert on foot to return to their home. 

Following an Australian government edict in 1931, black aboriginal children and children of mixed marriages were gathered up by whites and taken to settlements to be assimilated. In Rabbit-Proof Fence, award-winning author Doris Pilkington traces the captivating story of her mother, Molly, one of three young girls uprooted from her community in Southwestern Australia and taken to the Moore River Native Settlement. At the settlement, Milly and her relatives Gracie and Daisy were forbidden to speak their native language, forced to abandon their aboriginal heritage, and taught to be culturally white. 

After regular stays in solitary confinement, the three girls scared and homesick planned and executed a daring escape from the grim camp, with its harsh life of padlocks, barred windows, and hard cold beds. The girls headed for the nearby rabbit-proof fence that stretched over 1,000 miles through the desert toward their home. Their journey lasted over a month, and the survived on everything from emus to feral cats, while narrowly avoiding the police, professional trackers, and hostile white settlers. Their story is a truly moving tale of defiance and resilience.