Eric, Nancy, I’ve certainly sat through enough ‘millenial’ studies that show a higher acceptance of brand sponsorship; but I’ve always felt that it’s less an innate welcoming of advertising, and more a response to the maturation of the media industries. The cracks are appearing in the music, film, and tv industries — we’re all starting to see how the sausage is made. The Beatles sort of popped out onto mass media fully formed; now we live through the trials and tribulations of our favorite bands getting signed, dropped, and haggling new record deals.

The internet has also made connecting with other fans so easy; and with that we can pool our voices to lobby for our favorite stuff. And then it’s no longer just about losing something ourselves, but something that is lost for an entire community. (picture me screaming, ‘arrested development’ on my knees, at night, in a thunderstorm)

I think we’ll start to see these alternative business models soon. Fans of the Whedon show, Firefly, (they call themselves Browncoats) pooled their money together to buy an ad in Variety to help support the show. I think we’ll first have to see more shows like Dr. Horrible that exist outside of the ridiculously expensive studio/tv production system and can manage to make episodes for less than $1 million a pop, though.

First, I wonder if this is connected to the broader phenomenon I’ve been noticing of moving away from advertising=evidence of inauthenticity and hence unforgivably uncool. Used to be that if a band let their song be used in an ad, they were automatically SELLOUTS. Now it seems like fans are much more understanding that bands need alternative revenue sources and if Pernice Bros advertise paint, it strikes us as weird, but not evidence that the Pernice Bros now officially suck.

Second, it makes me wish more and more that there were alternative business models in entertainment industries that allowed us to directly finance the content we want rather than giving enormous cuts to Subway, record labels and all their employees, and so on. Maybe Subway has more to spend than the fans do, but they must think it’s possible to recoup what they spend through increased sales, which suggests that the fans are seen as having the money. What if people paid shows directly instead of buying a sandwich and giving most of the money to Subway? What would happen then? Of course the problem with that model is who finances it upfront before it’s had the chance to gain a following.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on both of these.