Word: belling
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...sitcom verisimilitude; The Price Is Right still pitches bedroom sets and floor wax. But after Survivor's success, "product integration" (a step past mere placement) is taking in-show advertising to a new level of sophistication and stealth. Products are becoming part of the show, be it the Taco Bell that's a site of a "murder" investigation on a new reality show or an SUV used in a TV-staged transcontinental race. And producers and advertisers are getting cozier than at any time since the days of Texaco Star Theater...
This summer, on Fox's Murder in Small Town X, 10 contestants will solve a murder mystery in a Maine town peopled by actors and well stocked with Nokia phones, Jeeps and Taco Bell's grilled stuffed burritos. On ABC's The Runner, scheduled for January, a contestant will travel the country, trying to elude capture by viewers who will compete for a growing pot of cash, while driving the cars, using the ATM cards and scarfing the fast food of yet to be signed patrons. "The runner lives in the real world, just like you and I," says...
...asked the same question, Fox president of sales Jon Nesvig says with a laugh: "I would hope the producers would probably use some judgment there." At the least, producers would risk losing sponsors. Says Debbie Myers, media services vice president of Taco Bell: "We have tremendous equity in our brand. We would never do this unless we were fully protected." And looming over the rest of TV is the idea that after the success of sponsored reality series, networks might want to sign up sponsors for dramas and sitcoms, and advertisers could thus exert control over scripts and story lines...
...Climbing with Erik isn't that different from climbing with a sighted mountaineer. You wear a bell on your pack, and he follows the sound, scuttling along using his custom-made climbing poles to feel his way along the trail. His climbing partners shout out helpful descriptions: "Death fall 2 ft. to your right!" "Emergency helicopter-evacuation pad to your left!" He is fast, often running up the back of less experienced climbers. His partners all have scars from being jabbed by Erik's climbing poles when they slowed down...
...that altitude, Erik could rely on no one but himself. His teammates would have to guide him, to keep ringing the bell and making sure Erik stayed on the trail, but they would be primarily concerned about their own survival in some of the worst conditions on earth. Ironically, Erik had some advantages as they closed in on the peak. For one thing, at that altitude all the climbers wore goggles and oxygen masks, restricting their vision so severely that they could not see their own feet?a condition Erik was used to. Also, the final push for the summit...