a) New Forms of Advertising – have emerged in recent decades; advertisers have gone on
from “Spot advertising”. We’re now seeing that advertising is not separated from the
context, it becomes meshed with the content.
a. Product Placement – involves deliberate and prominent insertion of branded
commodities or services into parts of motion pictures or television shows
i. Specific brands of various commodities: soft drinks, pizza, clothing, etc.
ii. Most desirable form of product placement is one that features a popular
actor/actress actually using the product or service
1. Tom Hanks – In Forrest Gump, he is seen drinking Dr. Pepper
iii. Been known to increase sales of products or services
1. E.T. – Character was seen eating Reece’s Pieces – at that time,
the candy was new and was looking for a way to broaden the
appeal. After the film came out, the sales of Reece’s pieces sky
rocketed
iv. Advertisers are paying the producers to have their products/services
inserted into movies/television shows
1. The producers are receiving additional revenue, which helps
them to offset rising production costs
b. Product Integration – a more subtle form of product placement, and as a result it
is harder to recognize or notice, but it is there; product integration can be defined
as involving constructing a seemingly natural and recurring appearance of
branded commodities or services throughout motion pictures or television shows
(products are integrated into the story)
i. You’ve Got Mail (Starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan) – the entire story
is based on a service – America Online Internet Service
ii. Television Cooking Shows – chefs often talk about particular cooking
products like Kitchenaid mixers, different knives/pot brands
b) Advertising and News – the institution of the economy has imposed structural constraints
on the institution of mass media (more specifically how advertising [which is part of
capitalist economy] places constraints on news organizations)
a. Early Newspapers in Britain
i. The Shift to Advertising – there was a radical, working class press that
th
thrived in 19 century Britain. These newspapers had a number of characteristics: 1. Funded by political parties (by radical political
parties), 2. Large circulations (had many readers), 3. Newspapers
presented a political critique of industrial capitalism. On behalf of the
capitalist class, the British government tried to undermine the radical
working class press through libel laws, press taxes (made things more
costly for the working class) – but it wasn’t the government who
undermined the working class press, it was The Changing Economics of
Capitalism (the massive growth of advertising)
1. There was also a mainstream press that was funded by less
radical political interests; eventually they stopped relying on
political parties to fund them, and turned to advertising. With
advertising revenue coming in, the mainstream news papers were
able to expand their pages and could also charge readers less
ii. The Impact on News
1. Decline of radical press: because the mainstream newspapers
were able to expand and charge less, they gained many readers,
and the radical working class press lost many readers, and the
working class newspapers found it difficult to attract advertising
revenue because of their critique of capitalism and because
advertisers were not interested in reaching working class readers
because they couldn’t afford the advertised services and products
– SEVERAL CEASED PUBLISHING, the ones that did not go
under:
a. Became small circulation newspapers (alternative press)
b. Others became mainstream newspapers (gav
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