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Entertainment Topics
Media Influence in Your Home
How the Media Influence Your Family
Some examples
- A brief candy cameo in E.T.—The Extraterrestrial immediately sent sales of Reese’s Pieces into orbit. Sales increased 65 percent after the film’s release. (Smithouser, Robert. Movie Nights, Tyndale House, 2002)
- Following the debut of Charlie’s Angels, karate lessons for young women increased 50 percent nationwide. (Smithouser, Robert. Movie Nights, Tyndale House, 2002)
- The scene in Mission: Impossible 2 of Tom Cruise’s mountaintop experience involving instructions received via his sunglasses caused Oakley sunglass sales to soar to $100 million in the quarter following the movie’s release—up 39 percent from the same quarter the previous year. Not a bad return on a $100,000 product placement investment! (Smithouser, Robert. Movie Nights, Tyndale House, 2002)
- In 1988, a Dallas morning deejay asked his listeners to send him $20, without giving them a reason. Within a week, the radio station had received over $240,000. (Campbell, Stan, and Southern, Randy. Mind Over Media, Tyndale House, 2001)
- “I remember being affected by the sex scene in An Officer and a Gentleman.… I was ten years old when I saw it and I still remember the guy who let me into the movie.”—Actor Luke Wilson (Legally Blonde, Home Fries)
- “Also, [I got to see] the impact the show has on young people, which can be scary. One of the most terrifying things I’ve had happen was meeting a 7-year old girl in a grocery store who said, ‘I thought it was so funny when your roommate danced naked on The Real World.’ Until you experience that, you really don’t understand the impact that television has on kids.” —Matt Smith, of The Real World: New Orleans [PTC E-Alerts/PhoenixNewTimes.com, 9/9/02]
- “Fans come in all the time looking for whatever it was Sarah Jessica Parker was eating. We get lots of people from Middle America through here several times a week.” —Magnolia Bakery manager Margaret Hathaway referencing the spike in popularity that the Greenwich Village eatery has experienced since it was included in an episode of Sex and the City two years ago [USA Today, 8/30/02]
- How do you spike popular interest in battered, broken, bloody corpses? Make them the centerpiece of a TV show. Since the 2000 debut of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, colleges and universities have noticed a large increase in the number of students taking forensics classes. And some insiders are fingering CSI as the inspiration. A representative from Manhattan’s Pace University credits the CBS series as a “major force” in its decision to add new undergraduate and grad-school degree programs in the field this fall. And The American Academy of Forensic Sciences says that 25 people per week are calling regarding forensic careers, a five-fold increase. [EW.com, 8/14/02]
- Power company Pacific Gas and Electric has issued a statement saying that the PG-rated movie Like Mike could be harmful to children because of a scene that involves Lil Bow Wow’s character, Calvin, retrieving his MJ sneakers from a power line. “These are high-voltage power lines … and the little kid doesn’t stand a chance,” says a rep for the west coast utility. Southern California Edison vice president Dick Rosenblum said, “We’re concerned the Like Mike plot could encourage an unsuspecting child to attempt a copycat prank of touching a power line or snagging a pair of shoes in the lines. The bottom line is that electricity and pranks don’t mix. It’s a terrible idea to tamper with or try to retrieve something from a power line.” [So. Calif. Edison, 7/2/02; TV Guide Online, 7/2/02]
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