Being (visual) media literate in the 21st century will mean having to tackle the unreality of "reality" shows. I never thought much about these shows or their snowball effect trendiness until very recently. Both cable and network TV offer a plethora of shows dedicated to showcasing the "reality" of people's lives, impacting the way we feel and view reality. This dissection of reality gives us a surreal vision of what we are supposedly thinking, feeling, doing, and saying, thereby creating a detachment (maybe even confusion) from what is real.
Sure, I *heart* PROJECT RUNWAY & TOP CHEF as much as the next viewer, even letting a part of me believe in the "realness" of them, but at the end of the day I hope that the ECONOMIST reading, foreign & independent film watching, undying skeptic part of me (call it my discerning, rational side) understands that the only real thing about these shows is how good they are at marketing themselves and garnering large fan bases.
And not only do we have to be aware of this irony/paradox when watching shows/movies, we also have to be aware of how advertising and marketing affect our thoughts and actions. Yes, we are consumers and we buy things, a lot of things, and, yes, we become loyal to brands as much as to the thing itself--thus our role in the cat and mouse scenario of "branding": companies want us to feel a certain way about their products so we will remain loyal to it forever and so they try to find out why and how we buy what we do e.g. Jiwon buys Tom's of Maine toothpaste because it's not too sweet and she remembers her Mom used to buy Tom's of Maine products growing up...
I think there is such a thing as manufactured authenticity and it's okay to be suspicious of it.
I used to love Tom's of Maine, too, but now Colgate bought it and I have a hard time with it. I actually worked for the company that did Colgate/Tom's advertising, and it was weird. I mean, Colgate was pretty cool about letting Tom's continue to do what they were doing well, but added a team of marketers (and $$$) to help them reach more people. And as I've started to see Tom's in Rite Aids and regular supermarkets all over the place, I'm happy that it's accessible to more people, but also a little sad because that marketing might be diluting a little bit of what I loved about Tom's. Or am I just anti-corporate? It might be a bit of that as well.
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