Product Placement - The New Rules

I am so tired of all the advertising threaded in to everything.

When I'm sitting in my economical, enviro-friendly Acme brand automobile, I'm so comfortable I don't need annoying advertising to tell me to take a sip of my Acme brand coffee, because I already know how refreshingly great it is at taking the edge off a long day. That's why everyone should be a loyal consumer of Acme brands products.

That was very interesting. A lot of times, product placement doesn't bother me at all. I don't mind when it's subtle and can help cover the costs for a show. It's when it's so blatant and detracts from everything else that it drives me crazy.

What is amzing about product placement is that it has become dramatically bolder in the last 5- 10 years, in all media. The video references the early days of television where most of the most popular programs were directly sponsored by (typically) a single advertiser. One early television executive declared very succinctly that "Television is an advertising (not entertainment or news) medium." Essentially, the programming is the 'commercials', to keep us tuned in between the advertisements.

Products have always been present in certain films and shows, dressing the sets, occasionally being featured in more prominent ways (see E.T. for example). Now we seem to be returning to the that original vision of the media where the commercial purposes are openly and boldly touted. Entire reality episodes or series are built around promoting a brand or particular consumer good. Products are not only prominently positioned in movie scenes, but are promoted by name in the dialog and sometimes the focus of the entire plot. Advertisers are paying to have entire novels written around their brand, even pop and hip hop tracks. I don't think I need to elaborate further, but the point is that the power of the media to provide news and entertainment is being increasingly subverted so that the media serves the advertisers and the needs of consumerism and not the other way around. That is what should alarm anyone interested in the role of mass media in driving the political and social culture, as much as collusion or corporate control and the absence of independent sources. As this video shows, if the internet is the last, best refuge of the independent voice, it can (and has) been penetrated deeply and could quickly loose that distinction as well.

To reiterate, I do not oppose advertising or even some degree of corporate integration under any circumstance - it's the reason I receive a paycheck. My concern is maintaining whatever integrity remains in the mass media and protecting independent media, keeping the product from becoming the message against the legitimate need to make money.