The direction of modern advertising is away from the blunt instrument approach my generation grew up with and toward the stealthy and subliminal. A tactic I didn’t know of is celebrity marketing—giving exposure to products at celebrity parties.

The college age son of my friend Beth is working part time for an ad agency, so I asked her if his career goal is advertising. She said, “Yes. If there’s anything left to advertise in a few years.” I thought her remark was a reference to the sagging economy, but she meant something different.

The direction of modern advertising is away from the blunt instrument approach my generation grew up with and toward the stealthy and subliminal. I, of course, have noticed bottles of Coca Cola appearing discretely in the middle of love scenes in the movies. And The Matrix Reloaded featured a chase scene between two Cadillacs, the CTS and the Escalade EXT. Newsweek changed its format a while back, and now I can’t tell the ads from the articles; every page looks like a prescription drug ad.

But Beth mentioned a tactic I didn’t know of, celebrity marketing—giving exposure to products at celebrity parties. Notice this public relations agency’s unusual offering: “As one of our strategic alliances, Cultural Marketing Communications is able to provide product placement marketing and celebrity outreach marketing promotional services that can give your products nationwide exposure as an alternative to launching television commercials.”

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