Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Is it different than advertisements between segments

TV News Shows are now doing product placement. 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/business/media/22adco.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

 

 

Are the issues raised by this any different than the issues raised by commercial advertising in 30 second blocks between news segments?  Isn’t the station beholden to the advertiser in both situations? 

Monday, July 21, 2008

Engineering In Hell

An engineer dies and reports to the pearly gates. St. Peter checks his dossier and says, "Ah, you're an engineer -- you're in the wrong place."

So, the engineer reports to the gates of hell and is let in. Pretty soon, the engineer gets dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell, and starts designing and building improvements. After awhile, they've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and the engineer is a pretty popular guy.

One day, God calls Satan up on the telephone and says with a sneer, "So, how's it going down there in hell?"

Satan replies, "Hey, things are going great. We've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there's no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next."

God replies, "What??? You've got an engineer? That's a mistake -- he should never have gotten down there; send him up here."

Satan says, "No way. I like having an engineer on the staff, and I'm keeping him."

God says, "Send him back up here or I'll sue."

Satan laughs uproariously and answers, "Yeah, right. And just where are YOU going to get a lawyer?"