The acceptability of product placement is taking on steam.
The trend seems clear. Brand integrations are getting more screen time as TV producers and networks look to make up revenue lost in the economic downturn; and advertisers look to finding new ways to sell products to the increasingly savvy consumer who is suspicious of overt ad messages.
While product placement, the inclusion of advertiser's products of logos within TV and film sets and scripts has been around for years, historically, producers and networks placed strict rules on product placement for fear of offending the audience.
But now, Hollywood is loosening up the rules as they search to make up lost revenues due to the economic downturn.
The result? The Boston Globe reports on "Eye-popping appearances by advertisers in places where viewers would normally expect to see story line and character development."
From The Boston Globe:
Some examples:
- In a recent episode of "90210 (on the CW), Dr Pepper was integrated into a storyline which had characters scripted as saying that a road trip wouldn’t be the same without the soda.
- Subway had its sandwiches displayed in two different episodes of NBC's “Chuck’’ and had its tagline, “$5 footlongs’’ incorporated into the script.
- ABC recently showcased the USS Enterprise from the new “Star Trek’’ movie flying out of the “O’’ during the title sequence on the show “Lost.’’
- Vitaminwater was proudly displayed in a recent episode of "Gossip Girl" on the CW
Alison Tarrant, CW’s senior vice president of integrated sales and marketing is quoted as saying that the network isn’t out to annoy viewers or shove ad logos in their faces. “Our audience is aware that product placement exists and that advertisers are probably paying for some of the more branded mentions that they see in the body of the show,’’ she said. “I think the audience gets it, but in many cases we look to give the audience value back for their tolerance of it,’’ such as a glitzy on-location shoot or better casting.
