The Wall Street Journal and all those that believe in the sanctity of unvarnished information and are certain that it just doesn’t mix with the muddiness of commerce are getting very agitated about a new Cable NBC television series called Scan, which will be sponsored, owned and controlled by IBM Corp. The series is about technology’s impact on people’s lives and is intended to be shown around the world. At the very end of the day, if we see something that we really don’t want aired, of course we have final veto, Marianne Caponnetto, IBM’s world-wide director of media strategy and operations told the Journal. Further concern is raised by the fact that Scan explicitly echoes the theme of IBM’s current multimillion-dollar ad campaign Solutions for a Small Planet, about the way that technology changes people’s lives around the world. It brings into question, is there truly a separation of church and state? asks Page Thompson, US media director of the DDB Needham ad agency. God bless ’em, he says of the ad agencies – they’re coming up with ideas and the networks are going for it. They’ve evolved the infomercial – this is just a forerunner of what we’re going to see as we get to 500 channels – every client will have their own programming tailored to their own needs, based on their ad campaign.
