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This volume contains the best papers from the sixth Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) Conference. The Conference cochairs have acted as coeditors for this thirteenth volume of Research in Consumer Behavior and provide the following introduction.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, characterize, and discuss paradigm shifts that have occurred in the video game industry with some emphasis on competition and competitiveness.

Basically, the paper depends upon a review of the literature associated with video game development. Past history is taken from texts and academic papers dealing with the subject. More current observations are taken from the business and popular press. These observations are placed within a context associated with the classic papers on industry evolution, paradigms, paradigm shifts, competition, and competitiveness.

It is difficult to capture present shifts in such a fast‐growing industry, but these shifts seem clear: the original entry of video games into the arcade sector that led to the industry and the demise of pinball; the development of the home cartridge and console that made the industry a home‐based phenomenon; the entry of independent game‐publishers that made the industry a two‐tiered one; and the development of massively multiplayer online role‐playing games (MMORPGs) that changed the way games are played.

The video game industry is an interesting one to follow. To an extent, its development characterizes our generation – fast paced, technologically oriented, and targeted toward the young and young at heart. This paper takes the subject away from a historical or anecdotal approach and places it within the context of industry evolution, paradigms, and paradigm shifts. It thus should be of value to students of not only video games, but also the evolution of rapidly growing industries and establishment of competitive advantages.

Purpose – Hybrid reality television, a burgeoning subgenre spawning from the reality television genre, distinguishes itself from its parent genre through dramatizations that have been described as presenting a “quasi-reality” that is disorientating for the viewer (Caramanica, 2010). In addition to blurring the lines between fact and fiction, hybrid reality programs blur the lines between product placement and entertainment as products are seamlessly blended into the depicted lifestyles. This research explores how consumers negotiate hybrid reality television programs and how this process transpires in viewers' reactions to the consumption portrayals within the programs.

Methodology/approach – Insights were sought from qualitative in-depth interviews with avid viewers of an archetype of the hybrid reality subgenre, the MTV program The Hills.

Findings – The findings reveal varying degrees of self-reflexive consciousness, reflecting viewers' critical awareness of the rhetoric of the program, the artifices of the hybrid reality genre, and their role as an audience. Self-reflexive consciousness facilitates a critical response toward the text in which viewers recognize the artifices of the genre and thus regard the program as “real” and “not real” and simultaneously worth and worthless viewing at the same time, in a textual strategy, we refer to as ironic (dis)engagement.

Originality/value of the chapter – On the basis of this body of data, a typology of viewer responses to hybrid reality programs emerges with corresponding consumption strategies as viewers negotiate the consumption portrayals within The Hills. These findings suggest that viewers embrace product placement within the subgenre and that the program has pioneered and opened up new horizons for lifestyle branding practices within television programming.

Dr. F. J. H. COUTTS'S report to the Local Government Board on an inquiry as to condensed milks, with special reference to their use as infants' foods, has been issued as No 56 of the new series of reports on public health and medical subjects.

THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION'S worsening financial position is a matter of general concern, and any constructive suggestions will no doubt be helpful to the Honorary Treasurer and others who plan our finances. The present Library Association structure is workable in practice, but it is becoming increasingly expensive to maintain, and a little thought begins to show the possibilities of economy, without any loss of effectiveness. The most important associated factor at the present time is the possibility of drastic local government reorganisation in 1974, only one year after the earliest date when Library Association subscriptions can be increased. The effect of this reorganisation, as at present proposed, on Library Association structure, needs to be borne in mind.