In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.

Not my favourite Warhol quote but very apt for the phenomena of the entertainment industry, and Youtube. Not that I am condoning the embarrassing Youtube videos which haunt my past. Whilst on the subject of haunting, did you know that even after you die, your facebook account is never completely deleted. You may be able to deactivate your account but your information will never be deleted from their databases.

This brings me onto the topic of privacy, Charles Fried (1968) defined privacy as the “control over knowledge about oneself”, but how much knowledge about our self can we actually control?  Have we actually given thought to the consequences of our Facebook accounts into our future life? But also there is that of which is beyond our control. So we have all heard of the data protection act that makes sure anyone who has access to our personal information must conform to specific laws. So we're sorted right?

Well what about something a lot more unobtrusive? Something that many of us are unaware of, and the majority of the time goes unnoticed?  I’m talking about Cookies, pieces of information generated by a web server and stored in your computer. They are used to personalize web search engines and store shopping lists of items while browsing. So what’s the problem? Through Cookies the latest marketing rage is electronic eavesdropping. And although suggesting that I try an anti ageing cream at the tender age of 19, after reading an article for my mini dissertation is not harmful, it is questioning our privacy. Questions are being raised, “Why are you showing me this ad? What is it you know? What else have you found out?”

 

Apps like Facebook and MySpace have completely destroyed any element of privacy, with many of us logging in on public servers, and without our knowledge our history is being saved. The bottom line is private life is no longer private; it’s strewn all over blogs, social networks, gmails, etc. It’s not a massive issue, the argument being;

My worries are what happens when your privacy is completely invaded, and your information sold on? Lycos Inc. A search engine and established web portal, have stated the aim of creating a tracking system which would create highly detailed profiles of user’s search patterns. They would do this by matching the cookie identification with a user profile, the user's past search history can be accessed by the web server. If these search profiles were to be resold, the user's patterns of research would be immediately apparent. If any form of identification were linked to these profiles it might prove a serious invasion of user privacy.

Why get all hot and bothered over target advertising? With the increasing commercial applications of the Internet, it was probably inevitable that cookies would quickly be utilized for advertising purposes. Since cookies can be matched to the profile of a user's interests and browsing habits, they are a natural tool for the "targeting" of advertisements to individual users.

Product Placement: The New ‘P’

So from the 28^th of February product placement will be allowed in British television as Ofcom are relaxing the rules about the form of embedded advertising where branded products are placed within the storyline of television shows or movies.

No harm done then, as according to Nielsen’s research into viewers attitudes about product placement in US programmes which have been screened in the UK, over a quarter of UK viewers who remembered the products featured said it improved their opinion of the brand. However programmes which contain product placement must display the new ‘p’ logo for three seconds at the start of their program and in any advertising breaks when any brands have been featured, and surprisingly this is what is drawing in lots of strong opinions.

Some critics have said 3 seconds is not long enough, how is the flicking viewer supposed to know that there is product placement in this program and that it should be mandatory for it to appear throughout.

Others have argued back that the point of product placement is that it is not intrusive or changes the body of the show, and by displaying the ‘P’ sign would act a s a warning rather than an informative and would be asking viewers to consciously spot the products.

My opinion on the matter is that I am all for product placement as long as it is done subtly, It wouldn’t bother me if Phillip and Holly started making Cappuccinos for their guests on their new Nescafe Dolce Gusto machine, or if Simon and Cheryl start drinking large diet cokes on the Xfactor, however what would bother me is an annoying logo bopping up onto my screen every time the product came into view.

Katy Perry recently has been having her 2 pennies worth publically on twitter over what can only be assumed as Britney Spears’ ‘hold it against me’ video cramming in as many product placement deals as one can fit into a 3 minute music video.

Take a look for yourself.

Product Placements are scattered all throughout the video, I found promotions for her new perfume, Make Up Forever, Sony and quite randomly the dating website PlentyOfFish.com, so I can see where Katy Perry was coming from in her tweets.

 “’Do it with style and grace… Not so in [your] face like some. [You] have to get creative with it. Some artists don’t care [though, and you] can tell.”

And I totally agree with her, with style and grace product placement is set to become a massive form of advertising within the UK.  Nescafe was brave to get the ball rolling because essentially it is the unknown, but at the end of their three month deal we will be able to analyse whether the recognition will have triggered an action, or will it have just plainly irritated viewers because of how blasé the placement was.

David Charlesworth head of sponsorship at Channel 4, reckons that it is a ‘reasonable aspiration’ for the UK product placement market to reach £100million a year. I’m guessing he has made this assumption based on the US and Australia’s figures where product placement has grown to account for 5% of TV advertising market. So we will just have to wait and see.