Advertising

Advertising is a pretty scuzzy business, but the interesting thing about POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is that it simultaneously educates us in the evils of the industry while shamelessly promoting it at the same time. Perhaps what sets it apart from typical corporate prostitution is its transparency. Morgan Spurlock is comical and very open about what the movie is. The really blatant ads that appear in the middle of the movie are so very obvious that it becomes laughable. I didn't leave the classroom feeling manipulated like I might for some other documentary, but instead educated and slightly more cynical.
Product placement can really be quite an insidious practice, but as long as it remains camouflaged, I don't really have a problem with it. I don't really care if a character takes a swig of Dr. Pepper and begins their dialogue. I don't even care if they say something like: "Hey, I'm thirsty, what's in the fridge?" "Dr. Pepper." "Awesome, toss me one." That's fairly benign and doesn't really detract from the narrative, but when you have characters actively and awkwardly pimping out products a la the cringeworthy ads seen in something like Bones, where the characters have (more than once!) been in their crappy Fords lauding the peachy keen navigation systems, it's too much. If it can be incidentally explained away, it's no problem, but stuff like that is just unacceptable.

Late Night Lunacy

I vaguely remember all the Team Coco drama from a few years ago. It did make me wonder who even watches late night talk shows anymore. Apparently, however, people still care about them. Honestly, for me, it's one of those things that, if I see it, I might watch it. I've been known to watch Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Chelsea Handler, and Graham Norton (who I confess is my favorite) if I happen to catch them. I've seen snippets of the programs, and they can be fairly amusing, but most of the time all you get is some okay jokes and celebrities showing up to pimp out their newest projects. That doesn't scream riveting, must-watch TV to me (although Stewart and Colbert have a more unique, amusing format that I would hesitate to call a late night talk show). The impression I get of Jay Leno is that he's something of a tool (and I'm sorry, Jaywalking is not funny. How does seeing the stupid people in real life not fill people with a sense of dread and shame for the human race? This is why I don't watch reality TV), but it's not like I've seen enough to really know. At least Conan has this hipness about him, a spark. Wouldn't it be kinda funny if this alleged retirement turned into another battle for this deteriorating program and Jay Leno was actually just a gigantic troll and/or often pretends to retire to reclaim some shred of relevancy?