But other advertising is more subtle. That is the subliminal advertising that bombards us through “product placement” or “embedded advertising” in television shows and movies. I’ve always liked the TV show Scrubs, but it always bugged me that they regularly and persistently placed various bottled water brands in the hands of the lead actors, including especially the notorious “Penta” brand, which made (and in some places continues to make) outrageous, unsubstantiated, and downright false claims about magic restructuring of the molecules of water and health benefits. Indeed, they’ve been sanctioned for false advertising in Great Britain. I have no idea if the producers and writers received money for this product placement, or if it was done in return for some other service or benefit, but it is rare that specific products appear on shows without some kind of financial deal.

Water Numbers: One industry estimate says that bottled water advertising exceeded $150 million a year in 2005, and it has continued to grow substantially since then. In 2007, paid product placement was estimated to be nearly $3 billion and growing by 30% a year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Peter Gleick is president of the Pacific Institute, an internationally recognized water expert and a MacArthur Fellow.

Read his full bio…

Just recently, an especially odd example came to my notice (thanks to Emily Green, who writes the Chance of Rain blog, for finding this). The TV show Private Practice, which I don’t watch, had the following remarkable 17-second clip (now posted on YouTube) from Episode 6 in Season 4, in which one of the leading characters goes up to the office refrigerator and says, “You know what I love about this place? None of this toting around thermoses. Just good old, environmentally unsound, non-biodegradable, here-for-a-thousand-years plastic bottles.” As she says this, she takes out a big square bottle of Fiji Water (yes, really bottled and transported here from Fiji), opens it and takes a swig.

Not being a regular viewer, I don’t know these characters at all. I don’t know if she is environmentally savvy and is being sarcastic (though, if so, why isn’t she drinking from the tap), or environmentally antagonistic and mocking the growing social movement away from bottled water. And I don’t know if the producers received money from Fiji Water, in which case this counts as direct product placement and not social commentary.

Perhaps regular Private Practice viewers can weigh in with their opinions or insights? And it would be interesting to hear from the producers whether money changed hands on this scene or they thought they were just writing punchy dialogue.

Next time you watch TV or a movie, keep a sharp eye out for both obvious ads and more subtle product placements and see if you can see the sneaky hands of the advertisers at work.

Peter Gleick

“You’re going to recognize where you are, but see that everyone around you is going to impact what you do,” said James Lanier, CEO of Absolute Hollywood, which helped create the globe. “Hopefully the people we see logging on say . . . let’s come together, let’s do something, let’s do it now.”

Using popular new media tools, the project turns viewers into participants in the unfolding crises — delivering Orwell’s dystopia into the 21st century. Scorched uses of a television series, live characters reporting on YouTube, cell phone alerts, mock news updates, blogs and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to weave a complex theater of narratives staging a desperate future for Australia.

To date, at least 10 percent of Australia’s population has taken part. Recent winner of an International Digital Emmy Award for best fiction program at the Cannes MIPTV conference, Scorched continues to earn attention and accolades across the world.

Read more here and here.

Source: Scorched, The Australian

As part of the CSIS Global Water Futures Project, the organization’s Declaration on U.S. Policy and the Global Challenge to Water says water is absolutely crucial to national and international security — both economic and humanitarian. Indeed, the water crisis has transcended research circles. According to newspapers like the U.K.’s Independent, the resource now poses a “bigger threat than the financial crisis.”

Agriculture and energy issues cannot be solved without addressing water needs, the CSIS report finds. Likewise, rampant disease outbreaks and high mortality rates link directly to poor access sanitation and hygiene and the absence of clean water systems. And, because water basins abide by no national boundaries, the resource must also be considered a foreign policy problem.

Few resources prove so vital to human survival. Water, therefore, requires a cooperative and integrated approach, CSIS concludes. Authored and endorsed by leaders from Congress to Coca Cola, the report delineates seven concrete steps the Obama administration should take to ensure that the U.S. plays a leading role in the much needed multi-lateral effort to alter the world’s water-related attitudes and actions.

While water threads together a multitude of concerns from communities to conference tables, the U.S. government has yet to take tangible steps to address this pervasive crisis. In 2008, Congress allocated $300 million toward the Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act.

Yet the government still lacks the bureaucratic support and organization to effectively implement such legislation. According to CSIS, “the reality is that too few persons with too little direct authority are tasked with trying to do too much.”

A plan for water that integrates “traditional geopolitical interests and broader humanitarian interests” is worth the world’s while — not only for the common good, CSIS remarks, but also for the common pocketbook. The World Health Organization indicates that for every dollar invested in drinking water and sanitation, $4 and $9 return respectively.

In an age of restructured intelligence and economic turmoil, why should the U.S. begin now paying attention to water strategies? Simply because, CSIS reports, it’s an undeniably smart investment.

Read full declaration here.

Source: CSIS

Read more here.

Source: SDSUniverse

“Water is a scarce resource worldwide. Four billion people do not have adequate access to drinking water supplies,” notes Sam Chandar, Vice President – HR & Corporate Communication, Henkel India Ltd. “By creating a heightened awareness and focusing young minds on this critical resource Henkel will be contributing towards sustainability….”

Read more here.

Source: Indiantelevision.com