I was watching television the other day and it surprises me how much of the 30sec spot I miss when I’m being absorbed by what goes on the Net. I find it remarkable that nowadays I come home and instead of wanting to vegetate in front of my tv set, I want to get back online and check out what my friends and peers are saying on Facebook and the like.

It was a scheduled TV time because Prison Break is on a Tuesday night here in South Africa at 8pm on Mnet, and I absolutely love watching Wentworth Miller (for his fine acting off course :-P) Anyway back to my rare TV watching moment, an ad break came up, which usually annoys me because I hate when an intense moment gets interrupted by something which I see as trivial, like an ad break. However this time I sat and was glued to the screen for a whole minute before turning to my Mom and saying, "Isn’t that awesome, that just makes me wanna drink Coke now!"

Yes, it was the latest instalment of Coca-Cola advertisements which all have a social media feel to them, or more importantly, are lending themselves to a truer depiction of what Coke means to humans.

It was the Grand Theft Auto -inspired Coke ad where the all too seemingly bad guy has a change of heart when he sips on a buddy bottle of Coke. Nice ad, and it did its job too. Fans of Playstation games will love it for the fact that it helps them identify more with the product and those who aren’t in the know on GTA, will at least feel the cool graphics is in keeping with the likes of Second Life and other social media and networking sites online. It’s a whole previously untapped community of people which is becoming a mainstream phenomenon just like rappers and bottled water once were. LOL.

I happened to stumble across an article on IOL about how Coke is trying to infiltrate this new market of tweenies and teens by creating spaces for them to share in the "Coke Dream" and be part of the community. Whether enterprise media lends itself to selling the souls of many a minor, I’m not too sure what the ramifications are…Although the onus is on parents to be more astute in their supervision of what their kids are being exposed to.

My point is that media is pervasive and as corporates become more and more savvy in terms of the digital media playground; society will have to become more in tune on how to deal with this pervasiveness, and how to interact with these outcomes instead of seeing them as threats to society.