Viswanathan K's Thoughts

In a world where the TV screen isn’t the only screen in town, where the tablet, the smartphone and even the good old PC/laptop screen vie for attention, you could expect the TV show industry to do something to hold on to their viewers. So what did they do? Well, they’ve accepted the reality that the “two-screen experience” (or even more screens) is here to stay. TV shows in the West even ask you to “log on to the show's website and participate in real-time chats and interactive razzle-dazzle”, as this article by Thomas Doherty says. The term for this “decorative wraparound material”? Paratext. The longer definition? “The paratext is the satellite debris orbiting and radiating out from the core text: what the post-­telecast chatfest Talking Dead is to The Walking Dead, what Madonna-vs.-Lady Gaga mashups are to the original music videos, what Wolverine action figures are to the X-Men franchise—what all the buzzing swarms of trailers, teasers, bloopers, tweets, swag, webisode...

“Your content and identity are being used as ads.” -          Josh Constine Advertising has come a long way due to the Internet. From same-ads-for-everyone (what TV and radio still do), we moved to ads based on what’s relevant at that instant (think Google search), and then to companies mining our data as we surfed to know what we might be interested in. More recently, in 2011, Facebook started the concept of “sponsored” and “promoted” posts …from our friends! “If you Like a brand’s Page or post, check in at a business, download or use an app, or share a link, advertisers can pay to boost that action’s visibility in the feed (of your friends).” Twitter shows you ads based on what the people you follow like. Pinterest and Instagram are doing the same. And now Google has jumped on the bandwagon. Oh, in case you didn’t realize, these ads show up with your friends’ names and faces alongside them as people who liked/ bought/used th...

By now, everyone must have seen this Blackberry ad that Vodafone is running: This ad indicates Blackberry’s attempt at an image change from being a high-level manager’s gadget to the new toy anyone can have. It’s no longer just for the smart guys or the rich guys or the ones wearing suits, the ad says. Reminds me of how mobile phone charges were around Rs 16 per minute back in the mid-90’s. And hence, it was only used by a handful back then. Fast-forward to today: it costs less than a paise per second. And everyone from your maid to the auto-driver has a cell phone. If only we make a lot more of the currently exclusive systems in our country just as inclusive. And while we’re at it, here’s hoping we can make things inexpensive as well.