Planet Earth

Planet Earth is an award winning BBC nature documentary series narrated by David Attenborough and produced by Alliston Fothergill. The American version is narrated by Sigourney Weaver. It was first broadcast in the UK on March 5th 2006.

Each show had a broadcast lenght of 58 minutes. The show had been heavily advertised prior to it's release creating hype. It was shown each Sunday at nine in the evening each Sunday for eleven weeks. It had a consistently high rating of between seven and nine million viewers.

Episode list below:

1. "From Pole to Pole"
2. "Mountains"
3. "Fresh Water"
4. "Caves"
5. "Deserts"
6. "Ice Worlds"
7. "Great Plains"
8. "Jungles"
9. "Shallow Seas"
10. "Seasonal "Forests"
11. "Ocean Deep"

Of course this was not the first nature documentary shown on television so it owes a lot to its predecessors. It's imitation however was not of other peoples work. The narrator David Attenborough has been the face of BBC nature for 40 years and his familiar voice resonated in the audience.

This innovative series was descibed by its makers as being "the definitive look at the diversity of our planet". It was the first nature series to be filmed entirely in high definition. This increased clarity was revolutionary and helped popularize the documentary.

The World's Most Expensive Magazine

Kohl is a new ITP lifestyle magazine which caters to Asian women. UAE jeweller Damas joined forces with Kohl to create the worlds most expensive magazine.

The special edition front cover contains 91 grams of gold and is encrusted with 622 diamonds. It is valued at over $10,000 American dollars. It was auctioned for charity last October.

In order to create this gold edition it took Damas craftsmen more than 86 hours to hand-apply numerous layers of gold leaf. Beyond it's precious exterior the magazine contains it's usual content. It would be a fantastic present for a devout humanitarian or a fan of the magazines cover girl, Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif.

The proceed's of the Kohl gold cover was donated to Rahid Pediatric Centre in Dubai. Editior Faarah Metha commented "we want to recognise and support the work of the centre in providing quality education and therapy services to children with special needs,".

IGN

IGN (Imagine Games Network) is a Internet site which was set up in 1996. It deals with multimedia news and reviews with a heavier emphasis on video games.

As of this moment it attracts over 23 million users a month and was one of Alexa's top 200 viewed sites. In September of 2005 it was purchased by millionaire mogul Rupert Murdoch.

This website has a broad appeal and could be useful to anybody with an multimedia interest and those who are looking for the latest multimedia based information. The demographic of people who use this is very wide, but I would say that it is used most by males between the ages of 13 and 25. In terms of psycho graphics it would appeal to any video game enthusiast or anyone who has an open attitude to knew technology,

The reason I use this website is that it gives very accurate reviews of games, music, television shows and movies. If you ever don't agree with their decision you can read other visitors reviews and press reviews. IGN also release trailers before they come out in the cinema, and they have regular interviews with producers and actors alike.

IGN is a very navigable site which is broken into smaller more specific sites when chosen. The first thing you see when you view the site is the constantly changing news wheel which provides up to the minute updates on various aspects of the media. Overall its an easy to read site which is easy on the eye.

IGN makes some of its money form public donation but mostly from advertising. These advertisements are placed often before video's, between pages in reviews and surrounding the text in reviews. All of which you can skip if you choose.

If I was in control of IGN I would remove the sites emphasis on games and evenly distribute the websites resources between all aspects of multimedia. I have no doubt in my mind that if they where to do this IGN would become the prime multimedia review site in the world.

http://www.ign.com

Product Placement and Embedded Marketing

Product placement is a form of advertisment used by companies where their branded goods are placed in movies ot television shows.

According to "Cable & Television" magazine "Two thirds of advertisers employ branded entertainment with the vast majority of that (80%) used in commercial televsion advertisment.

Association of National Advertisers said that "Reasons for using in-show plugs varied from stronger emotional connection to better dovetailing with relative content, to targetting a specific group".

The ten worst television shows for product placement are:

1. "The Biggest Loser" (6,248)
2. "American Idol" (4,636)
3. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (3,371)
4. "America's Toughest Jobs" (2,807)
5. "One Tree Hill" (2,575)
6. "Deal or no Deal" (2,292)
7. "America's Next Top Model" (2,241)
8. "Last Cosmic Standing" (1,993)
9. "Kitchen Nightmares" (1,853)
10. "Hell's Kitchen" (1,807)

The ten worst movies for product placement are:

1. I,Robot (Audi, JVC, FedEx, Converse)
2. The Island (Microsoft, Chanel, Nokia)
3. Blade Trinity (everything Apple)
4. Castaway (basically FedEx on an island)
5. Minority Report (Guinness, Lexus)
6. Austin Powers 2 (AOL, Pepsi)
7. Demolition Man (Taco Bell, Pizza Hut)
8. Back to the Future's (AT&T, Pepsi, Calvin Klein)
9. Evolution (Head & Shoulders)
10. Spider-Man (Sony, Dr. Pepper, Carlsberg)

PQMedia a site which tracks the product placement market tell us that product placement and advertisment combine in paypackets. All these payments to television and movie producers in 2006 accounted to $7 billion rising to $10 billion in 2010.

The film "Fight Club" featuring Brad Pitt was an unusual example of product placement. This included scenes where an Apple store was broken into and when Brad Pitt smashes the headlights of a VW Bettle! This self criticism is a rarity as it defaces products which paid to be in the film.

Another weird example happened after filming the current box-office hit "Slumdog Millionaire". The director Danny Boyle encountered product displacment. Brands such as Mercedes featured in the film but then asked for their logos to be removed digitally. Mercedes did not wish for their producted to be viewed in a slum setting!

Another tool which producers use instead of employing products is to make up brands of their own. The Simpsons have used this since their inception (Duff beer, Kwik-E-Mart, Laramie Cigarettes, and Krusty Burgers).