Since the television program that is his life plays nonstop, without commercial interruption, it has to makes money through product placement. Advertisements are not-so-seamlessly woven into dialogue and scenes, turning Truman's life into a continuous commercial, as well as a form of entertainment. Thus, when Truman drinks his favorite beverage, he is actually doing a strange kind of celebrity endorsement. The actors who surround him know it is all a commercial, of course, and in the middle of conversations with him they will begin to describe the wonders of a product. Truman thinks they are just being enthusiastic. He has no idea they are talking to a TV audience. The Truman Show's depiction of the way product placement is woven into Truman's life is an effective satire on the commercialization of our own lives. Today, forms of entertainment are commercials; commercials are forms of entertainment; and the boundary between both, and the rest of life, is becoming blurred. Taking the point one or two steps further, we can say that the media would have us live inside a world of fiction that is the most glorious commercial ever devised, for a system in which life, sales, and entertainment are interfused. "Product placement" and testimonials for this emerging system of entertainment-marketing capitalism are being seamlessly woven into our lives. |
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