Google in talks about selling "Social Change" through movies...

Participants at a panel sponsored by Google and the Advertising Council talked about different approaches to embedding messages about social change in media like film and television as well as in advertisements.

Bolding mine.

Using movies to make a case for social change is “a great way to get people to the table,” said Wendy Cohen, director for digital campaigns and community at Participant Media

Don't worry guys, it's a good thing...

Among Participant productions are fiction films like “Contagion” and “The Help” and documentaries like “An Inconvenient Truth.” In some instances, Ms. Cohen said, the role of film to inform viewers about important issues is “taking the place of what we used to get in a reported piece.”

I read: Yeah, the latest movies coming out that are super popular in the US actually contain so-called social messages. Of course, we could have just reported on this using newspapers, radios, and the internet, but people are too stupid to understand, so we put in a movie.

A success story for Bartle Bogle, Mr. Sjoenell said, was a campaign for the Google Chrome browser with a commercial devoted to the It Gets Better Project, meant to help gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teenagers who have been bullied. The commercial ran in shows like “Glee,” Mr. Sjoenell said, during the National Basketball Association finals. “We got the message out to an audience that probably wouldn’t have paid attention before,” he added.

I read: Yeah, we put a social message about gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender bullying into our popular prime time TV show, "Glee" because people who watch "Glee" are too stupid to find things out for themselves.

To clarify, I am not surprised such manipulation occurs, I am surprised it is being done so openly now.

Read the entire article at New York Times

Someone correct me if I posted in the wrong place.