A classic example of product cross-promotion. This was a commercial for 7Up that ran in the early to mid 80’s.  Imagine a (let’s say) Wii & Snickers commercial today – it doesn’t sound like such a great idea. However, Pac Man was such a generational staple that it simply was a perfect promotional tool.  Maybe soon we’ll see blogging or social networking as characters in advertising (as opposed to the already prevalent advertising in blogging & social networking)… they’ve certainly become ‘generational staples.’

Morgan Spurlock, the creator of Super Size Me, recently finished his new movie Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden? The movie’s initial premise was to find Osama. In the Guardian article (below), however, it is made clear that this premise quickly changed during production and that Osama was, of course, never found. The movie, instead, according to the article, turned into an exploration of various cultures and provides a different view of the middle east not traditionally found in American ‘media’.

Jeremy Kay talks to director Morgan Spurlock | Interviews | Guardian Unlimited Film
“The media manipulate what is going on out there to keep people afraid,” he says. “But we should ask more questions for ourselves, talk to each other and challenge what we hear. Then we can learn about our similarities. Maybe that will give us a better chance of surviving in the future.”

Spurlock shares my view that our own careful curiosities and insights are always most important to forming a balanced world view. ‘Traditional news media,’ blogs, documentaries (large & small), TV shows, and all other sources of news and information simply provide us with fuel to do so.

Spurlock writes that “the media manipulate what is going on out there to keep people afraid.” The ‘media’ does what is best for ratings, and the ‘media’ reports what is often the easiest to report (Note: media = top news networks). There is very little intention involved – news is often simply business with the goal of objectivity. So, I would argue, it’s not a premise of “keep people afraid”, but rather a premise of “Be objective, but also be interesting.”

Keeping this in mind, we all need to ask more questions and use as much “fuel” as possible to form our own world view. Looking at everything from multiple perspectives takes more work, but is also well worth the effort.