The Chevrolet Volt is going back to school.

Come November 30, the car will be the center piece of what Chevrolet describes as the “world’s largest school show-and-tell”.

The auto manufacturer will provide a lesson plan to teachers about the Volt through Weekly Reader, an educational materials developer for math curriculum and vocabulary tests.

“Today's middle school students are tomorrow's leaders, so Chevrolet is teaming up with Weekly Reader to provide a fun yet educational experience themed around electricity,” explained Maria Rohrer, a representative from Chevrolet. “Electricity is the new fuel of the 21st century and will help shape the future of the automobile.”

Chevrolet says that the event will tackle the basics of electricity and why it is important and how it can transform the American auto industry. The event will be held at the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles and will be broadcasted on the Web.

Source: InsideLine
 

As branded entertainment continues to surge, some television networks have managed to stay away from product integrations, like the Disney Channel.

The company is a family cable network that restricts sponsorship messages to ensure that it delivers a pro-social message. Since, Disney’s target audience is children, they try to avoid being commercially influential to the market.

However, Disney has taken a different approach on its Website. The company will be launching its first online branded entertainment program—The Possibility Shop.  

This Web video series is produced with Jim Henson Co. and it is exclusively sponsored by Clorox. The series is slanted towards promoting Clorox brands, including disinfecting wipes, toilet bowl cleaners, and other laundry products. Each episode will be accompanied by a short ad from Clorox, which will be used by the characters to perform household cleaning chores.

While the welcoming of brand integration comes as a surprise to many, Disney’s VP for online advertising sales says that Disney has been more open to these arrangements in the past months. Brad Davis says that the company even partnered with Walmart to create “Rock Out Your Zone”—which promoted the Walmart’s teen-targeted furniture line. 

“Everything we've created before that has been Disney-driven,” explained Davis. “Now we've flipped that model where in our case we're creating the product with the advertiser's needs in mind and with the [online] guest's benefit.”

Source: AdAge
 

Social networking is evolving into an advertising platform. Many brands have set up accounts in famous social networking sites, and one of them is the All-American Rejects.

The band from Stillwater, Oklahoma has set up a MySpace account, where fans can see the latest updates on the band. This includes gig schedules and album releases.

The All-American Rejects are composed of Tyson Ritter, Nick Wheeler, Mike Kennerty, and Chris Gaylor. Each of the band members have their own section in the MySpace page, where they display their own rants and raves.

The page also stores the band’s videos and live performances through YouTube-sourced posts.

You can view the page at www.myspace.com/allamericanrejects
 

Fox Mobile Studios (FMS), a unit of the Fox Mobile Group, is releasing a new branded entertainment series titled “Brainstorm”.

The eight-episode series, which is available on mobile and on the internet, centers on Altoids—the famous mint candy. FMS says that this new production goes beyond the typical form of branded content by integrating the product through an organic plot element.

“This is Fox Mobile Studios’ first branded entertainment endeavor and we feel very fortunate to have partnered with Altoids, a brand that has an innovative history of challenging conventional thought and behavior, to achieve this milestone,” said Michael Wallen, VP and creative director for Fox Mobile Studios. “In a world where consumers are accustomed to product placements and branded content we sought a new kind of integration that is mutually beneficial to marketers and media: it’s transparent, organic and most of all entertaining.” 

To produce “Brainstorm,” FMS teamed up with Omelet—an entertainment industry. The series is a funny take on the world of advertising. It is meant to be a stand-alone project that incorporates Altoids without being overly intrusive to viewers.

“Today’s consumers are inundated with choice when it comes to content and because they lead active lifestyles, we have to proactively offer them quality content rather than waiting for them to discover us,” comments Paul Chibe, VP and general manager of Wrigley U.S. Gum and Mints. “The ‘Brainstorm’ series is an example of a well-known brand like Altoids finding the right creative partners, like Fox Mobile Studios, to bring consumers branded entertainment that they believe in and enjoy enough to pass-along and share with friends.”

“Brainstorm” will premiere on September 28, 2009. For more information, log on to www.brainstormtheshow.com

Source: FierceWireless