Product Placement Propaganda

While teaching the kids that downloading equals theft, and that you may end up in prison for doing so, why not put some product placement in your propaganda. French news paper Le Monde reports on the entertainment industry's propagandists bringing their message of fear to the schools and pushing the products of their sponsors at the same time:

It is time to launch the video clip of Promomusicfrance, also a partner. The CD industry lobby transmits its message [...]: "Distributing musical files of which you do not have the rights brings 3 years of prison and a 300 000 euros fine... That's a big risk for something small. While there are free offers and legal pay sites." The logos of the Ipod products and the Itunes site appear on the screen. Apple is obviously a partner. [translation mine-RL]

That is, a partner to the anti-piracy campaign, which hits the French public schools at the moment. The 3 years of prison threat is misleading. Pushing selected logos on a captive audience of school kids only reveals the shamelessness of these tactics. Brand your product! Get them while they're young! This statement by one of the propagandists of the campaign shows the craving for fresh, young meat:

"For the pupils of 4^E and 3^E, it is a little too late, [...] they already took bad reflexes. In fact it would be necessary to be able to intervene as of the primary school."

That's about 7 years! The kids' age, not the prison sentence they're threatened with, which still stands at three years. Soon we will be harvesting a generation of juvenile delinquents.

- - -

Le Monde article [French]
Thru WeBlog P2P & NTIC [French]