Putting products before plot?
It's hard to find a TV show or movie these days that doesn't have name-brand products in the scenes. Amy Scott takes a look at where product placement is headed.
Skyy serving as the official spirits sponsor for "Sex and The City" is just the latest example of product integration in entertainment. (Skyy/"Sex and the City" Ad)
More on Entertainment, Marketing - Advertising
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: I had hoped to get through the show today without having to mention the big movie that's out this weekend -- the sex one -- but apparently, that's not to be. Sex and the City has its big screen debut tonight in New York City.
Nobody who knows the TV show from whence it came is going to be surprised to see the stars carrying brand-name handbags and gushing about brand-name shoes -- that's half of what the show was all about -- but working products into plot lines comes with challenge: How to do it without turning off the audience -- and the regulators.
Marketplace's Amy Scott reports.
Amy Scott: Last spring, Philip Rosenthal testified before a House subcommittee on behalf of Hollywood writers and actors -- Rosenthal created the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond."
At the hearing, he played a clip from the TV show "7th Heaven." Various characters extol the virtues of Oreo cookies. At one point, a young man proposes to his girlfriend:
[Clip from "7th Heaven"]: I love you Rose.
The engagement ring is buried in Oreo filling.
[Clip from "7th Heaven"]: Will you marry me on our wedding day?
I will.
Philip Rosenthal: Ah, that's a beautiful story, yes? Maybe if the writers and actors weren't so worried about covering that engagement ring in creamy filling, they could've taken a look at the line "Will you marry me on our wedding day?" Right? Surely a nominee for most terrible anything.
Rosenthal isn't just worried about bad writing. He says stealth advertising like this forces writers and actors to essentially endorse commercial products. And he says it exploits the emotional connection viewers have with TV shows, often without their knowledge.
The Writers Guild of America wants the FCC to consider requiring some form of disclosure. The Commission is looking at various options. One idea? Each time a product pops up in a script, text would appear on the screen telling viewers they're watching a paid placement.
Robert Thompson: That would make the irritation that some people already have over this stuff tenfold.
Robert Thompson teaches television and popular culture at Syracuse University. He says viewers are a pretty savvy bunch.
Robert Thompson: If you are watching commercial television, you have just made a pact with the people who are delivering it that you are entering heavily commercialized space, space that is dominated by the needs of commerce even over the needs of the art that's apparently getting you to go there in the first place. I think most viewers are fully aware that this is going on, and it's led to, occasionally, some really delightful outcomes.
Take this episode of the NBC comedy "30 Rock." Tina Fey fawns over a Verizon Wireless phone:
[Clip from "30 Rock"]: I mean, if I saw a phone like that on TV, I would be like, "Where is my nearest retailer so I can get one."
She faces the camera.
[Clip from "30 Rock"]: Can we have our money now?
Syracuse's Robert Thompson says "30 Rock" is echoing TV's beginnings. Jack Benny and Sid Caeser plugged their sponsors' products with a wink at the camera.
And if the wink isn't disclosure enough, Frank Zazza has a less-intrusive suggestion. Zazza helped broker one of the most famous product placements of all time: the starring role of Reese's Pieces in the movie "ET."
Frank Zazza: I would want end credits. Why not have my credits up there to show that I thought enough of this program to embed my product in it, organically and seamlessly? And if you have any questions, call us.
Zazza sees good product integration as a welcome alternative to the clutter of spot advertising. Wouldn't you put up with a few more subliminal messages if you never had to see another car commercial?
As networks struggle to hold onto advertisers in the TiVo age, you may not have a choice -- except to turn the TV off.
In New York, I'm Amy Scott for Marketplace.
Comments
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From Northridge, CA, 05/30/2008
Amy Scott refers to product placement as a form of subliminal message. Since true subliminal messages occur beneath the audience's level of awareness, it is unlikely that any clearly visible product would qualify as subliminal.
From Orangevale-by-Sacramento, CA, 05/30/2008
Subject Quote: "Zazza helped broker one of the most famous product placements of all-time: the starring role of Reese's Pieces in the movie "ET."
Please forgive my perspicacity (I've been saving that word since having first seen W. C. Fields "The Pharmacist"!), but attribution of Mr. Zazza as being the party responsible for promotion of "Reeses Pieces" may be either mis-attributed, or at least short-changing the efforts of pioneer product placement firm "Unique Products", an advertising firm headed by Cliff McMullen back in the early '80's. McMullen himself contacted my company back in 1982 to provide what became Matthew Broderick's "Bedroom Co-star"; the "WarGame IMSAI", which is featured on our web site at www.imsai.net. I have given tribute and provenance to justify my citation on our homage to the 1983 film "WarGames" at www.imsai.net/movies/wargames.htm. To quote an excerpt from that page:
"On July 8,1982 Bob Walker briefed me regarding a call from Cliff McMullen of Unique Products, a major pioneering product placement company in the Los Angeles area. McMullen is the guy who got the candy/major food group "Reeses Pieces" placed in the Steven Spielberg movie "ET". The firm wanted us to provide them an IMSAI 8080 and several other props for a new MGM Studios movie starring the then-unknown Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy"
As a followup unrelated to Mr. Zazza, our still-extant "WarGames IMSAI" and related props are the subject of an upcoming feature in Wired Magazine related to the Twnty-Fifth Aniiversary release of an enhanced version of that classic film (Boy... do I start to feel dated!), and I will be providing those items once again for a photo shoot in Oakland, California next week. These same items wer last seen two years ago in one of the AT&T commercials centered on their "Voices" campaign. Video of that commercial is on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEp6ca9Ppks
Hopefully, a correction or explanation will be forthcoming from you folks, and a respectful salute to Mr. McMullen and coompany for their original pioneering efforts in successful product placement.
Respectfully,
-Thomas "Todd" Fischer
Fischer-Freitas Company
(916) 212-6722
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