{"id":6003,"date":"2006-02-12T20:20:38","date_gmt":"2006-02-13T03:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=6003"},"modified":"2006-02-12T20:20:38","modified_gmt":"2006-02-13T03:20:38","slug":"harshing-your-subliminal-mellow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=6003","title":{"rendered":"Harshing your subliminal mellow?"},"content":{"rendered":"

From John Hood, writing on the FCC vs. product placement in the March Reason<\/i><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

When Peter Parker shot out his webbing and snagged that can of Dr. Pepper in Spider-Man<\/i>, its seems that impressionable movie audiences across the country suffered deleterious consequences—perhaps in the form of forgetting how much they loved Mr Pibb.  “The public needs to know when they’re being advertised to,” says Jonathan Adelstein, one of the five appointees who run the Federal Comunications Commission.  To that end, he wants his agency to require a lengthy disclosure notice during every TV show with paid placements, an effort he believes it can justify with the laws governing payola.\n<\/p>\n

\nProduct placement isn’t a new problem.  Indeed, it isn’t even a problem.  In the golden age of radio, the republic survived product placement during soap operas and The Jack Benny Program<\/i> without suffering an epidemic of obesity.  (Remember “There’s always room for Jell-O”?) Consumers may well prefer brand placements over watching endless blocks of commercials, but they’ll rebel if the insertions become too distracting.  Smart advertisers don’t want to drive their audience to the next channel.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut even if product placement were a crisis demanding government intervention, Adelstein’s proposal to require lengthy, prominent disclosures would be a peculiar solution.  Audiences will ignore the disclosures the same way they’re increasingly ignoring (or TiVo-ing past) commercials—the same behavior pattern that’s driving the move toward product placement in the first place.  If only there were a way the FCC could place its message somewhere in the show itself…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nHood has this exactly right:  TiVo and digital recorders with skip capabilities have created a problem for advertisers that they have done an admirable job of overcoming by turning more and more to product placement—only doing so, oftentimes, from a meta-perspective that takes into account that the public recognizes the necessity of product placement as a way to circumvent TiVo-ing. \n<\/p>\n

\nIt’s a cat and mouse game.  But when advertisers are creative about the approach, viewers don’t seem to mind—nor, pace <\/i>the fears of the FCC, are they so pliable that the mere inclusion of a specific product in a dramatic product (rather than it’s generic equivalent—for instance, say, and Apple computer flatscreen vs. a computer screen with no identifying logo) turns them into consumers who are being unfairly coerced.  Additionally, the inclusion of specific products in a dramatic work, when done subtly, has the potential to add a level or reality to the proceedings; similarly, when done obviously, it has the effect of adding a layer of self-consciousness and self-referentiality which is the cornerstone of much postmodern art.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhat is certain is that a few benevolent kings running the FCC should not have the power to decide how a consumer is advertised to when the method the market seems to prefer has shown no documentable effects of harm.\n<\/p>\n

\nOr let them.  And the public, as Hood points out, will simply ignore these new disclosures—which in the end will serve only to waste time, network money, and reduce the time available to advertisers in the first place.\n<\/p>\n

\n****
\n
\nupdate<\/i><\/b>:  I meant to bring this up in the body of the post, but the marketplace will determine the viability of a particular placement strategy.  For instance, has anyone else noticed that a Chrysler 3000 is receiving top billing over Harrison Ford in the televised previews for his new movie, Firewall<\/i>?  I’m not sure yet whether I find this amusing or crassly consumeristic; and I’m not sure yet whether how I ultimately come down on that question will have any impact on my desire to see the movie.  But Chrysler’s approach is bold, to say the least.  I don’t even remember a Bond film so baldly advertising one of it’s cars.  The closest I can come to an analagous recent film was the remake of The Italian Job<\/i>, which reintroduced the Cooper Minis to US markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From John Hood, writing on the FCC vs. product placement in the March Reason: When Peter Parker shot out his webbing and snagged that can of Dr. Pepper in Spider-Man, its seems that impressionable movie audiences across the country suffered deleterious consequences—perhaps in the form of forgetting how much they loved Mr Pibb.  “The public needs to know when they’re being advertised to,” says Jonathan Adelstein, one of the five<\/p>\n

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