Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

2 December 2003

Program Placement On TV

Reuters is reporting that ABC and Mindshare, a marketing firm that calls itself a "head-space invader", will collaborate on some future television programs.

The venture could put a new twist on product placements and sponsorships, strategies being embraced by advertisers in the face of eroded audience ratings and technologies like TiVo which allow viewers to skip commercials and watch programs according to their own timetables.
Critics have said such strategies can blur too much the line between entertainment and marketing.

Yes, because today the line between programming and advertising is oh so rigid.

"This gives us a chance to have a collaborative relationship with our major clients early in the process so that we know ... we will meet the needs of the clients," Alex Wallau, ABC network President, told Reuters. "This could be an important part of a portion of our primetime programming."

In case there was any confusion, when ABC TV refers to its "clients," they're not talking about you, the TV viewer. Don't be silly. You're the inventory. You're piled in the back of a truck. You're being delivered. You're not being catered to.

"The door is open reasonably wide for anything we think is going to be compelling. The key is that it is scripted," Goldstein said, citing ABC's "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" as an example of a successful format. "We're not focusing in on reality (TV)."

Don't worry. There are limits:

But while a comedy born out of the partnership might use clients' products on its set, such as kitchen appliances, "that doesn't mean that were going to create a kitchen set simply for the sake of having a kitchen set," he said.

Name a family sitcom that doesn't have a kitchen set.

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