What Do You Think?
We’re all used to seeing ads — on the bus, in magazines, billboards, on TV, even in movie theatres. Most of the time, they look like ads. They’re separate from the story, articles or content.
Sometimes, the product is shown inside the story — that’s called product placement. Ruby Skye’s camera is a Polaroid Pogo, given to us by Polaroid as a way of advertising the camera.
There’s another kind of advertising called product integration. Then it’s not just that you see the product in the story, but it’s part of the story and the characters talk about it. Ruby, Hailey, Griffin and Diana go to The Dragon Academy. The Dragon is a real 
school in downtown Toronto that became part of our story as a way of letting kids and parents know more about the school. That’s advertising too.
You can see product integration at work if you check out readmysistersreportcard.com. Remember how in Ruby Skye P.I. and The Case of the Missing Brownies Hailey uploaded Ruby’s report card to the internet? Well, the report card is a work of fiction, but it’s on a real report card form from The Dragon Academy. The teachers names are made up, but the principal’s name, Dr. Meg Fox, is real.
There are a lot of rules about advertising to kids; lots of parents, educators and government officials are worried about ads that trick kids or take advantage of them.
We’d like to know what you think about the kinds of advertizing that are part of Ruby Skye P.I. — especially if you’re 16 or under.
Some of the things we’d really like to know are:
Would you rather pay for entertainment yourself or have advertizers pay for the entertainment?
What do you think of product placement and product integration? Does it make you like products more or less? Do feel fooled? Would you rather we stuck to more traditional forms of advertizing?
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