Corporate sponsorship

Dell Computer's corporate sponsorship of music festivals like Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits Festival is an example of how a large corporation reaches out to younger audiences when it wants to launch a new product. It looks like Dell Computer is trying to create buzz for a new consumer product by working with a media story about their corporate sponsorship of rock festivals around the country.

This is an example of someone writing a story about one thing while creating a story about something else. Smart marketers are tricky this way and I think it's important to examine the story of tell-tale signs of the corporate hand: the opening paragraphs about the Dell at the festival, it wheels quickly into news of Dell's purchase of Zing, a quote from a marketing director about how Dell can establish direct contact with customers because there is going to be a new product launch, followed immediately with a description about that new product.

As we like to say, there's nothing wrong with any of this. Except you need to use your critical mind when you read news stories and understand that there is always a hidden agenda, an unspoken but clearly articulated narrator and audience for every story. The questions should be:
Who is the narrator?
What is the story?
Who is the audience?

You can check out the Reuters story by Michael Ayers here: