A group of television writers staged a protest on Tuesday against product placement in their own creative product, at an Advertising Week panel in New York. Their focus was reality television, but product placement has been annoying viewers - or flying over our heads - since long before most of us realized that so-called unscripted shows even had scriptwriters. It is, however, becoming a more prevalent source of income for many shows. According to The Guardian, US advertisers will spend an estimated $825 million on product placement this year, after $550 million in 2004.
I find it hard to get worked up about the crass commercialization of reality television, mostly because I don't watch much of it, but also because the bits I have seen are so blatant, there's no subliminal message to fear.
But it's becoming more prevalent in scripted shows, too. In one of the most extreme recent examples, Will and Grace's live season premiere featured Rosario talking about Subway's new chicken parmigiana sandwich, shortly before a commercial aired for that very same sandwich. Usually, product placement is slightly more subtle.
It's more distracting for me to see characters drinking Bob’s Brand Cola than a familiar can of Coke, but when Coke cans threaten to take over the screen, it can take me out of the fictional world. And there's something very wrong if the viewer feels the presence of ad reps in the writers room. We need subtle, but not subliminal.
Knowing that money changed hands to have a can of Coke in the shot – more if an actor drinks from it – may seem a little disquieting. But not knowing that money changed hands is even more so. Some consumer groups worry about the subliminal effect of this form of advertising, particularly on children, and want full disclosure.
Article comments
1 - Rich Powers
Advertising evolves to meet the demands of the times and I see this trend continuing. But product placement isn’t reserved for television. Movies and even video games are getting the treatment (here's an article about in-game ads in one of Sony's PC games).
While a disclosure would be nice, I highly doubt us viewers will ever get one. If they can get away with the three pt. font for important finance information on car commercials, than they can surely get away with briefly flashing a disclosure list.
I just hope the writers don’t let the advertisers take too much control...otherwise things could get real hokey.