More signs of the product placement apocalypse

@Hank,

The latter isn't much better. Witness the NEXT episode of Psych, which ends with a random meeting between Shawn and his father in RED ROBIN where Shawn consumes a strawberry milkshake and talks about how it is "one part strawberry, two parts awesome." Barf.

I gave up on 'realtime' TV altogether and only watch shows on DVD; I have very little tolerance for paying to watch something and still be subjected to advertising, one of the reasons my movie attendance has nosedived the last few years, and will not watch shows with embedded advertising.

I realize that any individual consumer is statistically insignificant, but personally I will not 'get used to it', I will continue to consume less and less media as the trend towards increased advertising continues.

That Tina Fey placement was not funny - Arrested Development handled it their Burger King with wit, but her sticking her hand out to the camera and saying: 'Can we have our money now' wasn't amusing, it was the lamest 'product placement' joke to make.

I buy a book and read it, and don't expect to read lines telling me about new products and shops. I'd rather 'buy' TV shows than waste seconds of people peddling crap to me.

These "integrations" just don't feel natural. I am taken out of the story completely and then so pissed off that I can't focus the rest of the show. if this is the future of TV, I'll just read a book.



Clearly you haven't been reading the publishing trades. This is old news there. Novels and children's books have been subsidized or commissioned by the likes of Bulgari and Saks 5th Avenue. Don't doscount "product placement" in your favorite author's next novel.

Advertising is a reality in our world. Sometimes it's subtle enough that you don't realize how it effects what you see. I was a travel magazine editor for years. The destinations that got coverage in print were the ones with "advertising support." You read about the same places over and over--and maybe not specific resorts, but islands or cities or countries--because they have the tourism infrastructure to pay for advertising. Whenever I wanted to publish an article about a topic or place with no advertising money behind it, I had to duke it out with sales and the publisher. Then there's "advertorial" which is an article length advertisement with some very fine print notifying the reader of this. It's the magazine eqivalent of an infomercial. This is true of all type of magazines and newspapers, not just travel.

Remember the film Minority Report? As Tom Cruise walked through the world of that film, biometric signals promted advertisements EVERYWHERE targeted specifically for him. I think of that occasionally, as I am assaulted by video ads in my supermarket checkout lines, in elevators, in the back of cabs.

Get used to it, folks. It only gets worse from here. To be honest, the stuff you're talking about in these shows annoys me a lot less than some of the above. And it's infinitely better than when they have little ads for other programs playing in the corner of the screen over what you're trying to watch.

* Steps off soap box.*

Let me start off by saying I absolutely HATE advertising, and I believe it should be exremely limited with as little First Amendment protection as possible ("commercial speech"). Most ads are inherently false or fraudulent - whether it's beer commercials with normal guys getting hot women because they are drinking a Bud to car commercials with a page of fine print you couldn't even pause on the DVR to read if you wanted to. They lie. Explicitly or implicitly - usually the latter.

THat being said, I've never been bothered by seeing real products in the background of a movie or TV show. There are real products in the background of real life. In fact, in shows/movies where every product is a non-existent one, it gives it an extra level of unreality (which might be intended). But I expect to see cans of Coca Cola in a fridge or at a restaurant, I expect to see vending machines that say either COKE or PEPSI on the front, I expect to see people driving fords, chevies, toyotas, mercedes, etc.

I've always wondered which products were actually paid to be there and which ones were simply there as an inadvertent prop. Nowadays, I'd imagine they film a movie, go back and watch it and identify all name brand items that can be seen, and then demand advertising payment from the product's manufacturer, only to airbrush it out if they don't get paid. I wonder if that's how it really does work these days?

But forcing the writers to integrate a product into the story really does bother me, and it really does cross a line. An artistic line, that is. I think the only two forms of legitimate advertising are word of mouth (which the manufacturer has no control over) and "reminders" like sticking a logo somewhere. Actually saying something about the product is always going to be "puffery" and always going to be false and misleading and should not be allowed.

As such, I'd rather see two characters in a TV show talking about a product in general terms without making any claims ("excellent coffee" is an opinion, not a statement of fact or the sort of claim I'm talking about) than see a TV commercial that does make false or fraudulent claims. Merely implying attractive members of the opposite sex will be more attracted to you by using a product is LYING. Axe deodorant spray is the worst violator of this, and should be taken off the shelves.

What I worry about, and hopefully it's not inevitable, is when such fraudulent claims are forcibly intermixed into the story of a TV show. When Shawn and Gus are competing over a girl, and Gus uses Axe deoderant body spray, and the girl immediately runs to Gus and spreads her legs for him, that's when I stop watching TV altogether. I have a lot of books I've been meaning to read.

Tina Fey, on 30 Rock, has set the standard for how these things should be handled. Though, obviously, her way is much easier on a comedy than a drama. They basically make it so blatantly obvious what they are doing that it is funny and becomes part of the joke. I'll never forget that Snapple is a 30 Rock sponsor because of how they did their product integration. And it made me laugh.

Did anyone see the My Boys where one of the gang gets all excited that he just bought a round of SoCo and Lime shots? Yeah... especially since a commercial had aired the previous break, that seemed a little too obvious.

These "integrations" just don't feel natural. I am taken out of the story completely and then so pissed off that I can't focus the rest of the show. if this is the future of TV, I'll just read a book.

Watch the season premiere of "Burn Notice" again. A container. Favorable lighting. A car. A camera swooping elegantly up the front grill over the car company logo...

But then again this wasn't as sickening as the BMW Z3 promo in "Argmageddon". *yuck* Or the BS they pull on the "Fantastic Four" every time.

I suspect that as time goes on, these things will be more natural. Lie instead of 'Let's get some coffee' it will be 'Let's stop at (brand name coffee shop) for some coffee, Shawn. I don't want coffee, I want (other beverage served at brand name coffee shop).' They enter the shop, get their items, move the plot along, and the manager eventually orders them out for taking up space and not ordering (beverage or food item at shop) for the last 45 minutes.