The very name “advertainment” sends thrilling vibrations up the spine of any person with promoting in their blood or communication in their genes. And it produces a strong shiver of disgust from quite a few of my colleagues in the music market.

“I don’t want my songs to be involved in advertising,” they say, forgetting entirely that by wearing branded operating shoes, a t-shirt hawking Fender guitars and a baseball cap emblazoned with the Peavey logo, their extremely lives are involved in advertising. Plus, if they attend an awards show, they happily state the brand and designer names of everything they’re wearing.

They further ignore the reality that radio itself is a form of advertainment. What gets played has small to do with musical accomplishment or artistic merit, but is directly associated to the backing of big corporate distributors. I have been told to spending budget anyplace from a quarter of a million dollars to $350,000 in promotional expenses to obtain national radio play on (the appropriately-named) commercial radio stations. Is it any wonder that corporations are seeking techniques to construct a little brand awareness into the songs?

Turn on any rap, urban or hip hop station and you can begin counting the product mentions in the lyrics, some paid-for, some just happenstance. In the electronic-pop field, I have completed it myself. On my “Electro Bop” album are songs such as “Paranormal Radio” (which begins as a documentary about American Technologies Corporation’s HyperSonic Sound system), “Sheena Sez” (about talk radio host Sheena Metal), and “Check the Tech” (about the joys of watching the TechTV channel).

Has this advertainment hurt acceptance of the album? Not that I’ve noticed. Quite a few e-mails from around the globe cite “Paranormal Radio” as their preferred track. Not one person has complained about the ad messages, I assume due to the fact the audience for my dance-oriented music is pleased to get data about technologies and a far-out rock-talk jock such as Ms. Metal.

Ads and entertainment go hand-in-wallet in a lot of other techniques, some pretty strange. In music alone, we have all wondered about Bob Dylan’s “Really like Sick” in Victoria’s Secret commercials (not to mention Mr. D himself smirking among shots of the beautiful bodies wearing the lingerie). But do not overlook Keith Richards in the “Cover Girl” ad while “Honky Tonk Women” plays, or Willie Nelson’s “Red Headed Stranger” in the Herbal Essence spot, or Iggy Pop’s liquor/drug/sex-soaked “Lust for Life” blasting throughout the Royal Caribbean commercials. (Love to work with the Account Executive who was able to sell that idea!) By contrast, Sting crooning from the back seat of a Jaguar appears a really model of demographic compatibility.

And that’s the point: ads and public relations are routinely dismissed as silly, annoying, intrusive or a waste of time correct up to the moment when they are delivering details the reader or listener desires. Then, all of a sudden, the sponsored message is viewed as valuable and instructive. As a result, the trick is to accomplish the right match among audience and message.

One dilemma is deciding upon your media. Just listing advertising outlets can be daunting: Tv, radio, outdoor, newspapers, magazines, transit, direct mail, Net banner. Several of these have subsets: paid inserts (advertorial) in newspapers and magazines, sponsored “newsbreaks” and infomercials on broadcast media, static or animated announcements at stadia, those dreaded ‘Net pop-ups, brand names on sports uniforms and equipment (can you say NASCAR?), etc.

One of the most enjoyable categories for producers of each music and advertising is viral ‘Net advertising, which has had some notable success stories such as BMW Films, the Seinfeld AmEx campaign, and of course, Burger King’s Subservient Chicken.

We haven’t even regarded as cooperative advertising, which can be something from myriad logos at the bottom of an event poster to the branded music tones and flashing-light Intel trademark that ends every other commercial for somebody else’s laptop merchandise.

But it extends further. Think about: Magazines that sell cover stories item placement in movies and Tv (and yes, live theater) branded clothing bumper stickers even fliers stuck on parked vehicles. There are ad messages on private automobiles (and those anti-humanistic trucks that some insist are known as SUVs). Pull up behind a vehicle in traffic and you can read an ad for the vehicle dealership on the license plate frame, plus one more piece of public relations for the state on the plate itself. (Come on, you do not think it is hype to put “Land of enchantment” on each vehicle licensed in the state of New Mexico?)

You might believe that this plethora of choices makes it less complicated for firms to get their messages across to their targeted demographics, but a good case can be made for the opposite view. Television audiences are turning to Tivo and pay-per-view. Radio audiences are discovering XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. Newspaper readership is becoming an oxymoron. Motion picture audiences can be heard groaning, mocking or booing the pre-function commercials.

This indicates there are a lot of individuals working on new methods to get the product rewards into the brains of the buyers. I do it with humorous radio scripts and subliminally seductive music, but there are going to be some innovations in our industry, and at the risk of appearing foolish, I’m going to make a few predictions. Within the next few years, we’ll see:

* Debit card scanners in Television sets, so you can order during a commercial with the flick of your remote.

* Barcodes in songs, so you can download from iTunes by swiping your XM or Sirius player with your Visa or MasterCard.

* Credit cards built into wristwatches, so your “plastic money” is generally close at hand.

* Links to item web-sites in just about every scene of DVD movies or personal computer games. Do you want the shoes in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater game? Click-click-click and they’re on their way to you via FedEx (note item placement for the massive competitor to United Parcel Service).

* Broadcasts of infotainment and advertainment will pop up everywhere: in public restrooms, at the Starbucks, at targeted traffic signals, at the gas pump, on your mailbox, in the packages you purchase, in the parcels that arrive at your door, and so on.

* Captive broadcasts. Just as you can preview the music on packaged CDs (obtainable in EU now, but coming soon to the USA), the product benefits, cost points and warranty facts will play as soon as you lift up a product in the store.

* Digitized logo placement in the rebroadcasts of syndicated Television shows (“Hey, we can sell the item placement yet another three occasions!”)

* Branded ingredient lists on menus.

* Corporate artwork that takes you on a virtual tour of the corporation.

* Interactive ads, exactly where you get to play Jerry Seinfeld and/or Superman (or the driver of the BMW) in a 5-minute escape from reality (and from reality Tv).

* Holographic projections of commercials from postage stamps, auto and property keys, magazine covers and ad pages, etc.

And these are just the adjustments we’ll be seeing in the subsequent couple of years. We’re not even discussing the opportunities for advertainment once we move beyond classic broadcast methodology when microchips are embedded below your skin, YOU will be the receiver for Tv, radio, satellite, telephone, and global positioning program signals. And at that point, the possibilities for marketing communication via advertainment are going to grow to be genuinely mind-boggling.

Are these prospects thrilling, frightening, or each? My view is positive. Following all, a lot of these new forms of communication are going to need to have my scripts and my music.

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