The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #15387   Message #137450
Posted By: Lonesome EJ
17-Nov-99 - 02:05 PM
Thread Name: BS: Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines
Subject: RE: BS: Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines
M and V...I think what we are witnessing is a new approach to the sales and marketing of entertainment, one that blurs lines between reality and illusion. The Blair Witch Project was a notable example of this phenomenon. It's tremendous success was not due to it's clever plot or scripting(having neither), but to the illusion that it was real. This began with the internet buzz on the Witch website, sustained it's momentum in the early viewings when there was still a perception that it was true, and kept up as it attained blockbuster status,even though by then everyone was on to the hoax.Are we living so vicariously through our entertainments that the manufactured realities they give us are supplanting our own? Or is it all just good fun, a sort of realized bit of April Fools that we all like to participate in?Where is the line between false advertising and a good-hearted joke at public expense?