Whose Truth? Native Advertising in News
The entertainment piece
‘The Agency’ is a comedy-drama pilot script, set in the fictional brand studio of ‘INN’ - the International News Network.
Much to the annoyance of its journalists, INN frequently accepts advertising from countries which rank low on the press freedom index.
A thirty year old intern who has retrained as a journalist was hoping to be placed in the newsroom, but ends up at the Agency - working on a proposal for The Republic of Stanistan.
Her colleagues have no idea that her best friend is one of the many influencers that have gone missing in Stanistan. The only person willing to look into the situation is Mr. X, a mysterious independent investigative journalists - who convinces the intern to report back on what the Agency is doing.
Characters & GenAI
I wrote my script independently. But, to visualise the world of the characters experimented with generative AI tools to create faces, places, and the formats that creatives at an agency would produce.
Images have been generated by Hina Siddiq using Adobe Firefly, 2024.
INN promotional reels
I wrote two short scripts, and used Pictory.ai to generate promotional videos.
Content like this is used by commercial teams as ‘sales collateral’ to promote a news brand to a prospective client.
INN promo reel. Script written by Hina Siddiq edited by Pictory.ai
INN sales promo reel. Script written by Hina Siddiq edited by Pictory.ai
Script Synopsis
The tone of the series is a playful observation of the relationship between advertising and news. It is set in a global news bureau in London:
Episode 1 : ‘They had a good revolution’
Logline: Lucy starts her internship at INN, the biggest news company in the world. Should she work undercover for MR X?
Lucy starts her internship at INN, grieving for her best friend Memphis. She meets ‘The Agency’, who are pitching for a Stanistan tourism commercial. Mr. X promises Lucy he’ll investigate Memphis’ disappearance, but he has another agenda - to take down INN.
The look and feel is inspired by the bold graphics of news channels like CNN, FOX and BBC but mixing them with the visual filming style and humour of shows like Not Dead Yet, Survival of the Thickest, and Industry. It is the cynicism of journalism and broadcasting colliding with colour and humour - imagine Succession meets Anchorman.
A pilot script is ready for review, and I am looking for development and commissioning support.
The Agency’s deck
To show audiences the process behind pitching, I also created a parody deck - a proposal written by characters at The Agency.
The goal of the diagrams and content summaries is to show audiences the processes behind native advertising.
The mock TV ad reel script was written by me, with images generated by Adobe Firefly.
The Agency's ad for The Republic of Stanistan (© Hina Siddiq, 2024)
