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Group Asks Gov't to Crack Down on Product Placement

Posted by michael on from the drink-pepsi dept.

Buck Mulligan writes "The rise of commercial-skipping Tivo has resulted in greater reliance on "product placement," and Commercial Alert has filed a petition (pdf) with the Federal Trade Commission urging the agency to crack down on the practice. Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert writes: "The interweaving of advertising and programming has become so routine that television networks now are selling to advertisers a measure of control over aspects of their programming. Some programs are so packed with product placements that they are approaching the appearance of infomercials. The head of a company that obtained repeated product placements actually called one such program 'a great infomercial.' Yet these programs typically lack the disclosure required of infomercials to uphold honesty and fair dealing.""

4 of 614 comments (clear)

  1. Stop inviting the government everywhere by Brahmastra · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why should companies be prevented by the government from doing product placement? Now, if a program sucks because of product placement, people will stop watching the program, and the company that makes the product will stop doing the product placement. Let the market control how shitty TV programs are and stop bringing government into every damn thing.

    1. Re:Stop inviting the government everywhere by weston · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let the market control how shitty TV programs are and stop bringing government into every damn thing.

      Because the market is doing such a great job of controling the quality of television programming here, especially compared to places where the programming quality is clearly inferior, like those socialist English folks and their BBC.

      That's not even really the point, of course. What's being suggested is that product placement needs to be monitored for the sorts of suggestions that made truth in advertising laws necessary.

      --
      Tweet, tweet.
  2. Just turn the box off... by TedTschopp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know it sounds wierd... but people need to realize that watching TV is not a right. And the producers of programs need to be compensated for their production.

    Do you want the governemnt to get larger and create more regulation? Do you want free TV? If so then expect commericals. Expect product placement. If you don't then purchase your TV channels. Or just turn the silly thing off.

    Read a book. Perferably a classic... but that's another topic.

    Ted

    --
    Fantasy remains a human right; we make in our measure and in our derivative mode... -- JRR Tolkien
    1. Re:Just turn the box off... by szquirrel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I know it sounds wierd... but people need to realize that watching TV is not a right. And the producers of programs need to be compensated for their production.

      You might have a point when it comes to cable and satalite TV but we do have a right to dictate how the public airwaves are used. We the public grant TV stations the right to use the airwaves for their broadcast in return for their promise to adhere to a standard of quality that we set. The TV companies are then free to do anything that will make them a profit but only as long as they play by the rules we set.

      That means that if enough people want to regulate product placement, then product placement will be regulated. Our airwaves, our rules.

      --
      Never approach a vast undertaking with a half-vast plan.