Sydney Morning Herald: Zooming in under the radar: advertising you don't see until it's too late

The advertising industry is warming to the challenge of selling products to a new generation of savvy consumers who are less drawn to conventional advertising. […]

Advertising and marketing agencies are producing TV shows, making films, publishing books, writing pop songs and organising events. Mitsubishi, Sanity Music, Lion Nathan and Unilever are part of the push into TV production.

This trend has gained so much momentum that a leading Canadian Ad Agency last week launched a spin off "branded entertainment" agency:

Chokolat, a new agency designed to create TV shows as vehicles for promoting products, was launched yesterday. Paul Lavoie, president of parent Taxi, says viewers are concerned about two things: entertainment and information. "We have to feed them high-quality entertainment and find a way to include a message from a marketer."