The September 2009 issue of The USIM Gazette® contains a bumper crop of good stuff, replete with articles on the gradual recovery of the US economy, product placement marketing, and interesting, recent stats from Nielsen Online on the top US online video brands.

Furthermore, this issue introduces a new department – movie reviews. However, the staff of the Gazette wanted to do reviews that would be in keeping with the publication’s high quality standards, so doing reviews of most of the contemporary films in theatres presented a conundrum, because most of the films are just not that good. Also, the staff wanted to avoid the trap that too many critics have fallen into, with their contrived “rating systems” and recommendations, which are intended to be fodder useful to the viewing public in deciding whether or not see a film, but which in reality are at best one-upmanship of other reviewers in a tawdry race to see who can best pan the latest Hollywood release.

The USIM Gazette® prides itself on its objectivity, and is not interested in selling you anything, one way or another. As a result, we have chosen to review films that are considered American Classics, such as The Graduate, Inherit the Wind, 2001 – A Space Odyssey, Elmer Gantry, The Grapes of Wrath, and so on. The September 2009 issue of the Gazette features a critical review of visual perception in Citizen Kane, widely considered to be the best American movie ever made.

Future editions of the Gazette will include reviews of current media and advertising related books. Past issues have provided such reviews, which were well-received, and we hope to continue the trend.

A dedicated Gazette reader suggested that we add film criticism, one of our country’s most popular forms of entertainment, as a new department. We think you will find an enlightening nexus between the article “Embedded Marketing Set to Generate More Sales and Higher Stock Values for Marketers by 2010” in this issue of the Gazette and our newest department. Why? Well, movies are currently the most popular media for product placements, and there is a long history of the practice, dating back some 113 years.

Enjoy!

Darrell Woody

Editor-Digital Communications