Product placements in movies and television shows are nothing new, but Aza Raskin, creative lead for Firefox and keynote speaker for the 2010 John Seely Brown Symposium on Technology and Society, raises questions about the expansion of such placements to include records of past events.
Raskin will present the talk, “Your Life Experiences, Brought to You by Coca-Cola,” in the talk from 3-4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Palmer Commons Forum Hall. A reception will follow the presentation.
Raskin asks: What if marketers could insert their products in your personal memories? What implications would it have for how we live? What if this wasn’t purely hypothetical?
He argues that it is just a matter of time before marketers start meddling with our memories, by adding their products to our digital records of past events. If we don’t recognize this trend and stop it, he says, our memories won’t be pristine for long.
The annual JSB Symposium features thought leaders from the front lines of the digital world, sharing their perspectives on the societal implications of new technology. The event is free and open to the public.
Raskin is the former head of user experience for Mozilla Labs. In addition to his Firefox position, he is co-founder of Songza, a music search engine and jukebox, and Bloxes, which makes furniture from cardboard. He is the son of Jef Raskin, who started the Macintosh project for Apple Computer in the late 1970s.
