For once I get an interesting story that's not too difficult. All of the vocabulary is about films, or "cinema", which are fancy ways to say "movies". How hard could that be?
The theme is "product placement", meaning that movie makers deliberately put a Coca Cola can, or some other brand item, in the film. The company will pay for this "placement" as long as it makes the brand look good. This is supposed to increase sales.
Movie makers (okay, "filmmakers") may use product placement to get more money for their films. These days, "it takes money to make money": Hollywood films are expensive to make, but they can bring in a lot of money for the movie company (film studio). If companies pay the studio hundreds of thousands -- or even millions -- of dollars, that helps the studio create a more impressive movie, which (if the studio is lucky) brings in more "receipts" (ticket sales).
The article on p. 2, "Before the Cast, Picking the Brands", says (bottom of column 1) that "the devil is going to wear a lot more Prada." This means that the movie makers are going to compromise with corporate investors a lot more. The author is referring to a famous 2006 movie, "The Devil Wears Prada". You can see a trailer (a short advertisement to make you want to see the movie) here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zicgut4gpwU
Prada is a fashion company that makes very chic (expensive and fashionable) clothing, shoes and accessories (bags, hats, etc.). There is a Prada botique (expensive and fasionable shop) in Taipei 101. If you do not get sick easily, visit Prada's website to see what it's about:
http://www.prada.com
In the third column, the author of this article says "the Lumier Brothers agreed to include Lever Brothers' Sunlight soap in the 1896 film 'Washing Day in Switzerland'." She may have two movies confused, though. One is a 1906 ad, apparently in Switzerland, but not by the Lumier brothers (who pioneered movies in the 1890s). See it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zicgut4gpwU
The other, possibly the first instance of product placement, was a Sunlight soap placement in this 1896 film "Défilé du 8e Battalion" (apparently from the Lumier studios):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4hP2fL8liE&feature=related
Audiences will have to decide whether they want to pay money to see long advertisments for several products. If product placement continues to be profitable, I guess we can only see more of it. Instead, I recommend short, low budget films with plenty of impact, such as this one that my Contemporary Issues student brought in:
Chicken a la carte
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1bOteXhwrw
The filmmaker also wrote and performed the song. I get the message, and I hope you do. Of course, some people prefer Prada.
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