Remember the TV series Friends? Monica and Chandler, Joey and Phoebe and Ross and Rachel all getting into situations and then gathering at Central Perk to talk. We’ll here’s The Nerdist’s take on how Friends would look like if it were set in today’s time.
I wonder if they would use Instagram or Snap Chat to take pictures of the ugly naked guy who lived in the apartment across the street?
Continue reading I’ll be there for you… when the media black is over
Written by Terri Reddout
Okay, that’s not true. I did a little research and now I know gaming is a $60 billion dollar a year industry. It is so big, so incorporated into society that even the academic world takes it seriously.
Games and Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media has been in publication since January 2006. Each journal asks psychologists, sociologists, communication specialists and more to share what they learned about gamers communicate, how they associate with each other and what they can accomplish working collaboratively.
In one issue they look at how propaganda is being used in EVE Online. Another article looks at the differences of culture between American and Russian players. Apparently, there’s a perception that Russians approach the game in a more criminal manner. The study shows it’s just part of their culture.
Thanks to my work with the students at CentralNewsWatch, I’m also aware of the growth of ESports. In fact, the NCAA is talking about considering make ESport gamers NCAA athletes.
By Terri Reddout
I’ll admit it. The concept of 3D printing confused me. How on Earth does the printer that kicks out letters and photos possibly print something in 3D?
Turns out it’s easy. Once you get the right printer and the right type of “ink.”
When I first wrote this blog in 2015 you could but a pretty good 3D printer, like this CubeX, for your home for $999 – $2000. Sounds expensive. Especially if you’re only going to use it to print multicolored rocket ships.
I reminded my readers that the first microwaves cost thousands of dollars. (One source said that would be like spending over $10000 in today’s dollars.)
Now, you can pick one up at the local mega mart for under $100.
And, as I predicted, the same has happened with 3D printers. I just spotted this Flash Forge 3D printer on Amazon for $349 with free shipping!
Continue reading You won’t need 3D glasses to see the impact of 3D printing
Some of the earliest pictures my parents took of me have a television in the background.
So, television has been around as long as I have.
Well, in truth, the mechanics of TV has been around a lot longer than I have. I’m really a child of early television programming.
The TV mechanism was actually invented by an Utah boy named Philo T. Farnsworth. He first sketched the idea of the vacuum tube in his high school chemistry class. He went on to develop the first electric television set in the 1920s.
The Great Depression and World War II supply shortages stalled the spread of television. The research continued but at a slower rate because materials and man-power were needed for the war effort.
Continue reading The future of television? Is it in your face?
Written by Terri Reddout
As a child, I used to spend my Saturday afternoons watching Godzilla movies. Nothing could stop this monster. Not tanks. Not machine guns. Not weird green gas. Nothing. As I recall, the people of Earth never defeated Godzilla. He’d just get tired of all the destruction and mayhem and would quietly sink back into the ocean.
While pulling information for this blog I was overwhelmed with the growth of social media and how it’s infiltrated all aspects of our lives. It made me think of those old Godzilla movies. Like Godzilla, there’s nothing out there that can stop the growth of social media.
As a broadcaster, I immediately became aware of how social media democratized the spread of information. Now anybody can spread information about anything they want. Like in this video, Science of Godzilla, a young man expounds on the scientific flaws with the 2014 movie version of Godzilla.
In the Single Ladies music video, Beyonce sings to her ex-boyfriend that he had three years to “put a ring on it” but didn’t.
My guess is Beyonce’s ex- in the song probably wished he had got down on one knee and offered her a diamond. Too late!
When Jay-Z slipped some bling to onto Beyonce’s engagement finger it came in the form of a 20 carat, $5 million rock of a diamond.
A diamond. It’s tradition to give the woman you love a diamond engagement ring. We’ve been doing it for centuries, right?
One of my favorite movies is Love Actually. The movie begins with aging rocker, Billy Mack, bastardizing one of his former hits, Love is All Around Us to Christmas is All Around Us. The idea was to capitalize on holiday sales. In truth, Love is All Around was originally recorded back in the 60s by The Troggs.
The song came to mind as I mulled around what to write for this blog. Love IS all around. But I contend an even more prevalent force surrounding us is media.
According to a report issued by the San Diego Supercomputer Center at USC each of us consume over 15.5 hours of media each day… outside of work. Wow! That’s a lot of media. We’ve developed into a multitasking society where we have a television show on, while using social media on our computers and sending text or Tweets on our smart phones. So, it is possible for a person to consume more than 24 hours of media within a 24 hour period.
Written by Terri Reddout
Product placement is where a brand is incorporated into the scenery of a movie or television show. And it’s big. Really BIG. In 2017, product placement represented $8.78 Billion in spending.
One of the first product placements I remember is Reese’s Pieces in the movie E.T. The Extraterrestrial.
Yes, originally Spielberg wanted to use M&Ms, but Mars turned him down. So, the producers went to Hershey’s and they gladly gave permission to use their little known candy. The deal struck between Hershey’s and the movie producers involved a Hershey promise to spend $1,000,000 to promote the movie. In exchange, Hershey’s could use E.T. in their ads. After the movie’s premier, sales of Reece’s pieces increased by 65 percent.
When they re-released E.T. in 2002, Hershey’s struck a similar deal (as this commercial demonstrates.)
There are four types of product placement.
In this digital age, advertisers are too aware of how fast forward on the remote impacts a commercial’s effectiveness. Smaller audiences television audiences means advertisers are looking for means, other than a 30 second spot, to get their product into the hands of consumers. In fact, product placement has kept some television shows on the air. Spend 5 minutes and watch the very clever Stephen Colbert explain how this works. 🙂 (Video is back from the Colbert Report days. Classic!)
Like those horrible soap opera scenes, product placement has reached a new level. The product becomes a part of the story.
For example, one of the great scenes from Wayne’s World involves Wayne and Garth (not) hawking various products.
Sometimes product placement is incredibly obvious. The Internship with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn and was pretty much a 24/7 product placement for Google, right down to the movie’s logo.
Other times, the product placement is seamlessly incorporated into the script. In the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away a Wilson volleyball becomes a main character. And an unopened FedEx box provided a plot twist.
My examples have some age to them, but product placement continues today. Apple, Coca Cola and Nike top of list of brands with the most product placement. The Will Ferrell movie “Talladega Nights” has the most product placement with over 8 product placements in every 10 minutes of the movie!
A really well integrated product placement happened in the first season of Netflix’s Stranger Things. It centered around Eleven’s obsession with Eggo Waffles.
Eggos became an “organic” part of the storyline. (Organic means Eggos didn’t pay to be part of the show.)
Paid for or not, the sales of Kellogg’s Eggos increased by more than 10 percent while viewers binge watched the Netflix series.
So, in 2017 when Stranger Things ran a promo for the new season during the Super Bowl, Eggos gladly turned over a 1980s version of a television commercial to be part of the promotion.
On Seinfeld, Kramer drops a Junior Mint into a man’s chest during surgery.
M&Ms and Livesavers turned down Seinfeld’s request to use their candies. Junior Mints didn’t pay for the product placement, yet this episode, which inadvertently credits Junior Mints for saving a man’s life, increased Junior Mints viability.
Trivia – When Kramer slips and the Junior Mint flies through the air and into the patient, the Seinfeld crew actually used a York Peppermint Patty. Junior Mints were too small to follow on camera.
In a tongue-in-cheek style, 30 Rock incorporated produce placement gags for Snapple in several different episodes.
I used to watch the television series Bones (2005-2017). I’ll admit I stopped watching when I saw some extremely blatant product placement. Toyota provides the cars and, when the lead character uses parking assist, navigation or other vehicle feature, it becomes part of the script. You can almost hear the script stopping, the product placement run, and the script picking up again.
And this is just one example of how the series incorporated product placement into the script.
In Jerry Seinfeld’s Crackle series Comedians in Cars getting Coffee the product placement for Acura makes fun of obvious product placement.
If you’ve got some time to kill here is a link to WatchMojo’s Top 10 Best product placements in movies and WatchMojo’s Top 10 Shameless product placements.
Even video games have some sometimes product placement, including the use of billboards in the Burnout Paradise driver game for the Obama 2008 presidential campaign! (It’s about 1:20 in the video)
And just when I thought I saw it all…I did some research and found this. One of the main characters in Final Fantasy XV wears a Nissin Cup Noodles on his head. Apparently, one of the quests in the game is to look for toppings to make the already delicious Cup Noodles taste even better. I’m not a gamer. I don’t get it. But it must be working.
Now, product placement has gone digital. Advertisers don’t even have to provide a product while the show or movie is being shot. It can be digitally inserted long after the television show or movie has been edited and aired. This 5:30 minute Slate video shows you how.
The technology is so good, they say it won’t be long before you’ll watch a movie where they digitally place chicken or beef products in a kitchen scene. Your vegan friend could be watching the same movie in another room and they would digitally replace the meat with fruits and veggies in the same scene.
Product placement is all around us. For this assignment you’ll have to do some research into production placement. Go to Blog:Product Placement for assignment details.
