Marvel Studio’s “Iron Man” is the first horse out of the gate in the Summer movie season. USA Today already gave it a positive receive and the movies is already predicted to be a blockbuster. However Josh Friedman, LA Times movie analyst says that if “Iron Man” makes less than $65 million during its first weekend it will be considered to be a financial disappointment. (The budget for “Iron Man” was $140 million.)

LA Times movie critic Ken Turan says that big-budget, popcorn crunchers like “Iron Man” and last year’s smash hit “Transformers” are killing the American movie industry, and putting reviewers like him out of business.

He said that summer movies tend to be critic proof, meaning no matter how badly they are reviewed, they are still box offices hits. Fortunately for the studios, the people who watch summer movies, mainly young men ages 8-25, don’t read movie reviews and are not concerned about things like plot line and acting talent.

USA Today stated that 80 movies will be released during the summer season. That’s 20 movies a month. Now if Gen-Yers, who most of these movies are aimed at, go to see one movie a week, they are still going to miss a good deal of these films. The majority of these films are going to tank, and the next few months will see a lot of red ink spilled on Hollywood balance sheets.

It makes you wonder about the lemming-like rush to release movies during this busy season. Some films would do a lot better released during the fall or the spring. Many of these movies are better suited for the small screen or DVD releases.

USA Today also reports that Hollywood has run through the pantheon of American comic book heroes to recast as movie franchises. (Even Iron Man is a B-list hero). Now major directors are turning to Japanese anime for movie ideas. The Wachowski brothers’ “Speed Racer” is based on a Japanese cartoon. USA Today also reports that Steven Spielberg is working on a big screen version of the seminal anime series “Ghost in the Shell.” Incidentally many of the ideas and images from the Wachoswki brothers’ “Matrix,” were borrowed from the original “Ghost in the Shell” film.

In today’s world we are bombarded by thousands of commercial images everyday. The average consumer’s eyes tend to glaze over when they see an advertisement. Two great examples of how consumers are willing to pay to avoid ads are Tivo and satellite radio. Tivo, and other DVR devices, have given many television ad sales rep sleepless nights, as viewers often prefer to record shows, so they can fast forward through the commercials.

Advertisers have taken to more creative forms of brand marketing such as embedding products into the storyline of a show. NBC’s smash hit “Heroes,” is sponsored by Nissan, and its cars are often featured in the show. Last year, a major storyline was written around Claire Bennett (also known as the indestructible cheerleader) losing her brand new Nissan Rogue.

42 Entertainment has taken a particularly unique way of promoting Warner Bros.’ “The Dark Knight,’ the summer sequel to the newly invigorated “Batman” franchise.

The LA Times reports that 42 Entertainment is generating buzz by creating non conventional campaigns around the movie’s characters. Billboards have been posted in major cities across the country urging people to vote for Harvey Dent (played by actor Aaron Eckhart), a main character in the movie. Seventy two hours later the billboards are defaced by graffiti from the Joker, another main character in the movie. The agency has also staged rallies for Harvey Dent and created a viral marketing campaign.

The Harvey Dent billboards are made up to look like a normal political ad, and I’m sure many people are trying figure who is this new politician called Harvey Dent. At least the buzz gets people talking about the movie, which is Warner Bros.’ main goal.

Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign recently received a shot in the arm when media titan Oprah Winfrey decided to throw her weight behind him. Obama drew about 30,000 people to a rally in South Carolina. Many of those attendees probably came out to catch a glimpse of the Divine Miss Oprah, and probably didn’t care about Obama or his platform.

This is one of the central problems with the American media. Everything has to have an entertainment spin to it. I remember back in the early 1990s, some veteran reporters used to complain about infotainment creeping into the news. But in today’s 24-hour, tabloid culture, infotainment is the norm. The lines between news and entertainment, are not blurred they are blended. Today it’s not unusual to see stories about the antics of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears appearing as the lead stories on CNN.

Even worse are the blatant infomercials networks like ABC produce for Disney movies. Media consolidation means the company that owns the studio, also owns the radio station, newspaper and television network. The news department becomes another appendage of the marketing department. That promotional segment about the new Tom Cruise or Will Smith movie is a 15-minute advertisement disguised as news. The only thing missing is the price of the ticket.

This trend has been going on since the early 1990s, when networks decided that news was a commodity to be sold like cereal. News directors were hired or fired based on their ability to draw ratings, forget about if the stories were newsworthy. So in came stories about car chases, serial killers and celebrity weddings. Out went stories about foreign affairs, government policy or the economy. In order to drive the ratings up, news directors had to make the news easier to swallow. The problem is now there is often more sugar than substance.

Mature people should be old enough to take their medicine without a lollipop. People should be able to consume serious news, without having it peppered with fluffy entertainment stories. Barbara Walters, who regularly interviews actors and pop stars for her “Most Fascinating People” show, says she is tired of interviewing superficial celebrities. She cut her teeth chasing down the likes of Fidel Castro, so I am sure she is tired of saying, “So tell me why I should go and see this movie.” Former ABC anchorwoman Carole Simpson remarked that children today know more about the likes of Beyonce than they do about their local congressman or senator. Speaking to The Detroit News in 2004, Simpson said, “Our next generation is not reading or watching the news. They are entertaining themselves to death almost. They are on the Internet chatting. They play games on their cell phones. They watch MTV and BET and are obsessed with celebrities. They don’t know the name of the vice president of the United States, but they know all about R. Kelly, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears.”

This is one of the reasons why voter turn out among young people is notoriously low. Most young people are more concerned about who’s on the cover of People magazine, than who’s on the front page of The New York Times. This infotainment trend has not gone unnoticed by the politicians. Many politicians are turning to late night comedy shows such as “The Tonight Show” and “The Daily Show” to launch their campaigns. Ratings show that most young people get their political information from this type of programming.

I find this mildly disturbing. I wouldn’t go to a comedy club, to see what policies my local politician supported. The line between news and entertainment is so blurry that many young people were excited when faux news anchor Steve Colbert announced he was running for president. They had no clue what he stood for, but they thought it seemed cool.

So back to Oprah, it’s fine if people back Obama because she rubber stamped him but can’t they make these decisions for themselves? Mature adults should vote because they care about society, not because they might get at a celebrity autograph.

FEMA’s Fake Press Conference Rocks PR’s Credibility

Sometimes when I hear of the latest PR scandal, I often ask myself two questions. One, what were they thinking? And, two, what school did they go to?

Case in point the latest dent in FEMA’s already battered public image. During the recent California wildfires, someone at FEMA had the bright idea to stage a fake press conference. Their excuse was FEMA needed to get information to the media and could not find any reporters to talk to (The media were given a whopping 15 minutes heads up on the conference.). Members of the media said they tried to call in on the number provided but couldn’t get through. All the while FEMA officials pretended to answer softball questions from fellow co-workers masquerading as reporters.

The fake news conference has left some PR officials with their reputations in tatters. John “Pat” Philbin, director of external affairs at FEMA, resigned his position but was denied a job as head of public affairs for the director of national intelligence because of his role in the event.

I don’t know whose idea it was to pass off FEMA employees as members of media. If it was suggested by a younger PR professional, the older heads should pointed out that this was breaking the rules. If it was suggested by more seasoned professionals, well, experience should have taught them better.

One could also point the finger at the colleges which produced these professionals. However I don’t believe your alma mater always reflects your talents.

I have never been a believer in “designer college degrees,” where people pay a lot of money for their education and are automatically bestowed that college’s pedigree. (President George W. Bush graduated from both Yale and Harvard and can barely string together a grammatically correct sentence.)

The stupidity of this stunt is mindboggling. Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff described it as “one of the one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I’ve ever seen since I’ve been in government.” The number one rule in journalism and public relations is always tell the truth. PR professionals may polish facts or make them sound more presentable, but most of them know better than to pass off blatant falsehoods as the truth.

One of my former bosses told me that once you have lost your credibility with the media it was nearly impossible to get it back. The media will likely think if you have lied about one story, how can they ever trust you in the future?

However after eight years of the current administration these types of shenanigans are not surprising. Over the last few years we have seen Jeff Gannon, a former call boy and fake journalist, infiltrate the White House press corps. (He also posed softball questions to former White House press secretary Scott McClellan) Also, columnists Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher were discovered to be on the government payroll.

The PR profession already has a problem with credibility, and incidents like FEMA faux press conference don’t help. However the news media also ranks low in the in public opinion. (Reporters are ranked even lower in credibility than used car salesmen). Recent high profile incidents of plagiarism involving large papers like The New York Times and USA Today have further damaged media credibility.

Some people automatically dismiss everything they read in the paper as being false. Long-time media professionals realize that to get a true picture of the news you have to take everything with a grain of salt and look at several different news sources. Journalists often have an idea of how they want their stories to look and sometimes an interview is more about reinforcing a point, than being objective. The news media often gets it right, but when they don’t its front page news.