The Engine Room

"The Engine Room" is a contest between teams from all over the world to produce digital art. The contest is available to watch on mtvU, MTV, and even on the internet. Sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, the show will mirror "The Real World" in that it will bring strangers together in a loft, but will create a point of difference by focusing on contestants' artistic abilities. This show is similar to the mtvU reality series for Ford, "College 500," which is another branded-entertainment project. The use of entertainment to feature products and basically advertise them is becoming more widely accepted.

The idea for "The Engine Room" came from the fact that, although Hewlett-Packard was very successful in its commercials, there was an opportunity for change. Nancy Reyes, an account director on the Hewlett-Packard account, said, "We take three, four months to create a commercial," in reference to Pete Connolly's "celebrity from the neck down" work, "and we saw kids creating parodies on YouTube in a fraction of the time." Hewlett-Packard saw no reason not to give this creative group of innovators using the web as a stage, a physical stage through a television show.

Making this show available online is another progressive step that many networks are accepting as useful. With the web serials and viral videos of the internet and YouTube becoming so successful, to really get your product or idea out into the world, you must take advantage of what the web has to offer. This is especially important as a transition from TV to the internet is being made.

In a world like today's, I cannot expect to see a television show that doesn't have some sort of hidden promotion. Therefore, these kinds of productions are somehow becoming acceptable. "The Engine Room's" website shamelessly promotes HP in every way possible. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements and now we are forced to watch them, being fooled into thinking that we are being entertained.