"When we come back, we'll tell you about a great new diet..."
Video newsreels or VNR's, began to really blossom in the early 90's.
Contrary to the name, a video newsreel is
not a
news story. It is, in fact, a
commercial.
Many companies, especially
American drug cartels send pre-recorded video clips to
local news stations all over the country. Toward the end of the 20th century,
marketers realized that the best way to sell something effectively was to
disguise the message, to hide it in other
content or put it in a
context where few people would recognize it as a
commercial and thus
dismiss it..
So we have VNR's. News stations are more than willing to air them, partly because their
parent stations are hungry for that dwindling ad
revenue, and anything they can do to forge a business
relationship with a big
company, they will. Another contributing factor is the reduction of cost. The news station doesn't have to produce the VNR's. They come prepackaged, complete with blank sound tracks so the
local anchors can dub their own voices into the
tape, making it sound like they actually did the
report themselves.
If you think this is
devious and downright
sneaky, you're right.
Pharmaceutical companies especially love VNR's because they can tout their wares
without having to list the side effects. You know. Those
funny lists at the end of the
commercials? Not to mention the fact that being on the news makes it seem like some
important scientific discovery. "OOOH! A new,
digitally enhanced,
diet pill!"
May cause drowsiness, dehydration, stomach upset, intestinal bleeding, Lesbians! Monkeys! Soy!, and or head explody. Consult your doctor before taking Googlahydrexkillabees.