[softball]

Originally Posted by sarettah

Isn't this really what free sites and tgps in porn try to do? The site or page is all designed to push traffic to a sponsor and the content is basically one big ad for the sponsor.

I think you missed my point. The content on the tgp or "free" site is only the lure. It is conventional wisdom. In its current old school form, what I am talking about is product placement. The closest example to what I am thinking is "Minority Report" with Tom Cruise. The film was basically a vehicle for advertising and we all paid to be pitched. I thought the movie sucked, but on a marketing level was way ahead of its time.

Spielberg consciously decided to use familiar brands, to make the motion picture seem more realistic and, not coincidentally, to give these companies some coveted (and no doubt high-priced) product placement -- a method of marketing growing in currency given the ascendancy of commercial-skipping technology like TiVO and ReplayTV.
"The fact that there are so many advertisements in this movie speaks to the fact that advertisers are looking for new ways to reach audiences in light of the technology that's been developed like TiVO and ReplayTV," said Jeff Boortz, the creative director and creative lead on the "Minority Report" ads, who is now founder and president of Concrete Pictures. "Advertisers will figure it out."
Most of the advertising portrayed in the flick is that of the outdoor variety. Although characters interact with computer-like digital displays -- even manipulating them with fancy interface devices that fit on the hands like gloves -- there's not much marketing going on within the bounds of computer screens. In the "Minority Report" universe, interactive advertising has made its way into the real world.
How interactive is it? Imagine getting splashed by an animated digital billboard advertising Aquafina. Or having an ad in the subway say, "[Your name here], you look like you could use a Guinness," just as you're coming home after a bad day at work. At one point in the movie the Tom Cruise character, on the run, is confronted by an American Express ad that says, "It looks like you need an escape, and Blue can take you there."