January 2nd, 2006
In-Show Virtual Product Placement to Combat Commercial Skip?
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
I don’t watch Yes, Dear, but I do watch Medium, and the two different approaches to product placement that these shows have taken may be just the beginning of a wave.
The Medium story isn’t new … it happened in November and I saw it … when Memoirs of a Geisha was mentioned during the episode … then followed up by a commercial. The Yes, Dear placement … I didn’t see it, and I’m sure I wouldn’t have noticed it if I had.
Viewers of the April 25 episode of the CBS show “Yes, Dear” may have noticed a box of Club Crackers sitting on a living room coffee table, next to a plate of cheese. What they didn’t see was that the box didn’t really exist, at least not on the set.
The Club Crackers box was inserted into the scene through virtual product placement, a process that uses computer graphics and digital editing to put products like cheesy puffs, soda and shopping bags into television programs after they are taped.
And with the explosion of new formats like DVD releases, video on demand and online video in the past few years, digital placement gives advertisers and producers the option of cutting multiple deals with advertisers, placing one kind of soda in a first-run movie and selling placement for another kind in that movie’s DVD release and a third in the portable video player version. Source: The New York Times via The International Herald Tribune
We Say: I found the Medium idea to be very irritating … as it was so obvious what they were doing. I was discussing this situation with my wife over the weekend. When commercial-supported TV was thought up, there weren’t even remotes. So if an ad came on, you kept it on. Then came the remote … and channel surfing. Then VCRs. And the ultimate (so far), the DVR. Basically, as I said previously, I don’t watch much live TV … and thus don’t watch many commercials.
Therefore, the idea of virtual placement (as opposed to the Medium tactic) is fine with me. Advertisers need to make money somehow. What I don’t want to see is a tactic I’ve seen a few times on Court TV … using The Crawl (TV-speak for the bottom-of-the-screen news ticker that’s used for a lot more than news nowadays) to advertise something. Granted, The Crawl is used more on news channels and on cable stations like Court TV … and in this case Court TV was just advertising a marathon of Law and Order: Trial by Jury episodes … but you can’t cut off the bottom of your screen … so what’s to prevent them from using that for regular ads? Oops, perhaps I’ve said too much.
Mumblix Grumph says:
Product placement really doesn’t bother so much. People in the real world ask “Would you like a Coke?” More often than they ask, “Would you like a carbonated soft drink?” People say, “Let’s go to Starbucks.” not, “Let’s go to a franchised shop that sells coffee.”
My biggest gripe is that there is too damn much “stuff” on the screen during news shows.
First, The Crawl, then the “Breaking News” notice and then a discription of the Breaking News. I tried to watch a news cast, but the action at the bottom of the screen was totally obscured by all the super-imposed crap.
January 2nd, 2006 at 11:01 pm
Charles says:
Isn’t it really just a matter of time before all types of media become ‘on-demand’ delivered through a DVR box? At that point, you could choose to receive the program for a nominal fee(or free!), or pay more for ad-free content.
I actually don’t mind the product placement. Except for when it’s done poorly, which usually means you recognize the placement of the brand while you’re watching the movie/tv show. I think good product placement is subliminal, so I wouldn’t mind the different brands in different media formats, although I am a little fussy about wanting to see a given movie as it was intended by the director…
On a side-note, was just thinking about how the networks are tripping all over themselves to distribute their shows through iTunes, and yet this was always possible through Tivo.
January 2nd, 2006 at 11:40 pm
Kimberly says:
The virtual advertisements have already been in use overseas for automobile racing, rugby, and soccer matches. So I am not surprised that sitcoms and such are finally catching up.
Just my 2¢ to you all,
=:8
January 3rd, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Subliminal Advertising says:
Dave
Interesting topic… I’m working in this industry myself and I don’t agree about this in 100%, but I added your page to my bookmarks and hope to see more interesting articles in the future
September 29th, 2006 at 4:14 pm