[Air-l] Re: product placecment

[Jonathan Sterne]

At 12:01 PM 9/5/01 -0400, air-l-request at aoir.org wrote:
>From: Barry Wellman <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca>
>Subject: [Air-l] Sponsored papers
>Folks, You've read the story about novelist Fay Weldon getting sponsorship
>from Bulgari jewelers for her latest book.
>
>I too want product placement gelt! If it's good for hockey rinks, it's
>good enough for the American Sociological Review!
>
>So here's part of my next paper.

Here's one to go with yours, Barry.  I teach an intro to mass communication 
course where we start that semester by talking about political economy, and 
today we talked about media that are funded by advertising vs. media that 
aren't.  One student (most likely a 1st year student) asked, in all 
seriousness, why textbooks didn't include advertisements so that they would 
be cheaper (I just got done comparing my 600-page _Technics and 
Civilization_ by Mumford with the latest issue of _Vogue_ which clocks in 
at 700 pages and sells for $12 less -- there's also economy of scale issues 
as well).  My answer was that most professors would balk at assigning 
textbooks with ads in them.  Again, she followed up with a "why" to 
that.  So my answer was that a lot of us professors believe -- "and this 
may sound corny," I added -- in the sanctity and independence of scholarly 
knowledge.  To place ads in textbooks would be to compromise that 
independence.

And to think, the advertising industry used to need PR people.

Best,
--J