Top Ten Media Revelations - Part Two

6. Media for Children

I was quite surprised when Hilliard talked about media that was geared for children and how deliberately it was trying to maculate them. This revelation comes to me when I feel like I should have realized that there is no demographic that’s off limits for media messages. All that effort that goes into persuading adults to buy certain products also goes into getting children to do the same.

I remember watching the cartoon ‘Transformers’ as a child and hearing how some adults referred to it as a half-hour toy advertisement. One of my favorite movies when I was young was the transformers movie. I can only imagine how upset those same adults were that there was a two hour advertisement that your kids wanted you to pay for. But even still, how could you not appreciate a movie with a cast such as this one:



I now look at shows geared for kids and most of them are really just methods of getting kids to buy toys. They may not have made the toys first like the transformers had done but the money to be made is that which is found in merchandising.


7. Writing for Your Medium

Many chapters of Hilliard cover writing for various formats. This is really not a revelation in itself, but the fact that each and every form of media needs its own format of writing is. The writing we have work on during the semester has covered categories like Television and radio, but the real essence of writing for a media is fine tuning it to the specific needs of the studio. The ultimate goal of writing a piece of copy for any media is to translate ideas on paper to ideas on film, in broadcast, or in print. With the internet we now have micro-mediums like You Tube that would essentially require its own scripting format.

For as many ways that you can convey information you can have a separate way of scripting it. New forms of micro-mediums are always cropping up and with them we will have new formats of writing. We may see someday new standardized formats to fir the video blog or online news segment, or maybe the idea that one format will fit a medium will be tossed out and studios will call all the shots.


8. Cutting through the clutter with advertising

I heard the idea of gearing advertising to cut through the clutter was from the documentary, “The Persuaders.” The idea was that your ad had to somehow jump out beyond other ads and engage the viewer. The revelation part of this came when I realized while watching the film, just how prevalent advertising has become in a short amount of time.

The change in the content of advertising is dramatic if you compare ads from the 1980’s to the ads of today. It’s a whole new game now. Advertising has to have emotion and feeling that the customers can associate with. The ad has to call to those that it needs to address and keep their interest. The tactics that advertisers now need to use are more varied. They will almost do anything to get viewers to listen. Take the following ad from Old Spice for instance:



This ad is remarkably similar to the now old internet phenomena, ‘Power Thirst’ mock commercial:



Is this is a good directions for advertising? Well in this case I think so; anything that forces the advertisers to get more creative makes their ads more worth my time.


9. Can Writing be Taught?

Late in Hilliard’s writing he spoke on having the talent to write. I call this one a revelation because I have never actually seen anyone state as plainly that writing takes finesse. I almost feel like most people don’t want to admit that there is something that hard work will not make up for.

Along the same lines, I think that a lot of what makes writing good comes out of experience. I think there is apart of a person that gives them that writing flair, but I also think that more people have it than most people would think. I feel that more people have a hard time writing because they lack a firm grasp of the language and the format of the medium. I would not ever consider myself a writer until I was clued in by a college professor and first learned grammar. Still, there was that certain finesse and passion for writing even before I learned the basics of writing.

In the end there is a certain type of person that writes. Most people can do it and do it well, but few can take it to higher levels while still enjoy what they are doing.


10. Future of Writing in a Cross Media Culture

My final revelation comes out of my seventh revelation. The micro-mediums that exist over the internet have clouded the lines between mediums. We now have Television programming brought to us over the internet by Hulu.com and internet over televisions. Advertisers are even breaking the boundaries of what ads are by using product placement and by creating mini-dramas like BMW’s. What the future has in store is a place where media has become more amorphous and has found a place in every facet of culture.

Advertising is a really big part of this change. New forms of advertising are needed to fill in gaps where traditional advertising is failing. The internet is one example of a place where this is occurring. Internet ad revenue is low and placed like Hulu.com are suffering from not enough revenue. However, they are showing ads during broad casts and the next step is get information on the viewers so advertising can be catered to their wants and needs. At first this may be a scary thought, but I will be happy when I no longer have to listen to the same high cholesterol medication ad over and over again. I can see this specific targeting of advertising becoming a boon to the advertising industry if they are willing to embrace it’s format.

The picture to the above right is from Real Fresh TV - the future of social advertising. You can follow the link to get more informationon.