Gaga over product placement

Here’s a modern day “telephone game”: See if you can count how many product placements are in the "Telephone" Lady Gaga video. Now, count the ones that are paid for. Pass it on.



According to AdAge,

"The most-talked about aspect of Lady Gaga's Beyonce co-starring, Jonas Akerlund-directed music video for "Telephone," which premiered Thursday night, was not the singer's flagrant partial nudity, girl-on-girl kissing or mass-murder sequence in a diner featuring Tyrese Gibson.

It was the product placement.

At least nine different brands make appearances in the nine-minute music video, from Gaga's own Heartbeats headphones to a "Beats Limited Edition" laptop, from HP Envy to "telephone" partner Virgin Mobile, and from Miracle Whip and Wonder Bread to Diet Coke."

But how many of these product placements were actually paid for? Not many, according to Gaga's manager. They were simply her ideas.

Put in pop-culture historical perspective, it's interesting to see how much creative license (or not) Gaga takes in her videos. They're definitely edgy but not necessarily original. Like my previous blog post on YA plagiarism, it appears to me as if Gaga is simply taking creative references from a variety of different sources and pulling them all together in a new way. Maybe I'm aging myself here, but all I see is a younger, next generation version of Madonna.

So who is the true material girl?

How do you get to Sesame Street? On YouTube of course

With nearly four decades on air, "Sesame Street" is a brand that is near and dear to most of our hearts. I have fond memories of learning my ABCs, singing songs and connecting with loveable characters. 'Screen time' wasn't split between hundreds of television channels, websites, electronic games or iPhone applications...  ahh, those were the days. But really-- times have changed and it's become harder and harder for kids brands (or any brand for that matter) to stand out amidst the clutter. And, truth be told, there's a lot of clutter out there. That's why I was so pleased to see that a trusted brand like Sesame Street was finally jumping into the game.

According to Monday's Reuters article: "Fans of Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie and the Count will be able to see episodes and clips of the show in three ways (iTunes, YouTube and Hulu). The announcement comes on the same day that "Sesame Street," which is broadcast in 140 countries, celebrates its 39th year on the air."

Both YouTube and Hulu have launched specific Sesame Street channels, with more than 100 clips from the show. On Apple's iTunes, you can download full episodes from season 35 and onward for $1.99. 

And that's a small price to pay for trusted, high quality educational content you can now download on the go.