Adver-tainment?

Branded content – is it entertainment or advertising?  Unfortunately, it’s hard for kids to tell the difference between an ad and content.

According to Cornell University

Children are exposed to more advertisements than ever before. The average child sees 40,000 television ads per year. This does not include the ads kids are exposed to during video, Internet, and product promotions. Advertising targets our emotions. It is often hard to resist that emotional appeal. Children under eight are not able to tell the difference between the program content and advertising.

At a recent conference I attended, the speaker referenced two compelling examples of this adver-tainment media:

The Corn Pops Challenge available on Miniclip.com .  The game rules state, Play these super-awesome challenges, unlock the golden cereal pieces and win 1000 bonus points! So what are you waiting for? If you were a kid who stumbled upon this game, could you see the Corn Pops branding?  Probably not.  As adults, can you decipher whether this is straight-up advertising? Branded entertainment?  Adver-tainment?

The Indiana Jones Lego mini movie.  Is this actually a mini movie, a commercial for Lego, a commercial for George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, or Paramount Pictures?

These examples of branded content go a step further than product placement by making the placement undeniably fun and entertaining.  How could kids resist, they don’t realize what they’re consuming.  Heck, I’m a Columbia University graduate student, and I’m not even sure what I’m consuming.