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TiVo Causes Increase in Product Placement
ndansmith writes "Wired has got an article on how TiVo and other 'ad-skipping technologies' have caused an upsurge in product placements on network television shows. The 84% increase in product placements on TV over the last year has drawn protests from both the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild. An example from the article: 'In a recent episode of the NBC series Medium, writers had to work the movie Memoirs of a Geisha into the dialogue three times because of a deal the network made with Sony earlier in the season. They even had the characters go on a date to an early screening of the movie and bump into friends who had just viewed Geisha to tell them how good it was.' Readers may also remember a controversial Cisco Systems product placement on Fox's 24."
From the article:
"some writers are putting up a fight, demanding more pay in exchange for scripting product plugs into their shows ."
So, in other words, it isn't like they are concerned about becoming shills...only that they aren't paid enough to be whores.
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Maybe it's time for television to evolve into something else. How much cheaper is our current cable television due to advertisements? How much would it cost if we stripped the ads out of the shows and just paid more for cable access?
I mean, wouldn't you guys like it if commercials were cut down signifigantly?
Not at the price of hurting the actual show. I can buy DVDs and not worry about commercials, or just go get food during commercial breaks. Product placement doesn't give you those options.
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I don't get it. How could turning the whole show into a commercial be considered cutting down on commercials?
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
I don't watch a lot of American television and I was quite confused when, in Tommy Lee Goes To College, the producers blurred out some signs and t-shirts worn by the plebeans. Was this the effect of sponsorship to remove references to competitors? They couldn't all have been offensive (especially the billboards *grin*).
Does the fact that people are using the technology to skip ads not tell the advertisers that, maybe, just maybe, we don't want to see the ads for there crappy product they are trying to pimp? Seems to me that pissing off the majorty of your customers with silly product placements is not the best way to reach the few that do skip your ads. Just my thoughts.
K Man
The real solution is so simple, it may be beyond the grasp of marketers: make advertisements worth watching.
It's simple. Why do I skip commercials? They're annoying, loud, repetitive, gaudy, mindless. I don't want to watch them, and the producer believes I won't be watching them (I wonder why?), so they scream and shout to get my attention.
So make a commercial that's funny, witty, beautiful. And don't play it every commercial break. Make something I want to see again, and instead of skipping it, I'll take advantage of the TiVo and watch it again.
Such a thing is possible: such commercials already exist. They've few and far between, but we've probably all seen at least one or two. It's possible. If the existing ad agencies can't come up with them, find new ones. I bet there are a thousand independent filmmakers out there who could come up with 30 second clips that fit this bill on half the budget they usually spend.
This is the real solution, one that doesn't involve literally forcing us to watch with DRM and legislation. Which is going to alienate people? Making something they desire, or making it illegal to avoid something they don't?
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
I'm tired of the networks complaining about loss of ad revenue due to fast forwarding through their ads. I've had a TiVo for going on 5 years now and I have to say that I watch more ads now than I did before.
/.) and not paying too much attention; the TV is just on in the background and I glance up now and then to view it.
Seriously, I don't watch that much TV but what I do watch, I watch multiple times, usually because I'm multitasking doing something else (like posting to
When the comemercial break comes on though, I'll grab the remote and fast forward through the ads. Since TiVo doesn't auto-skip, I watch the whole commercial break, albiet at quadruple speed. I'll even stop it on ads that grab my interest. Once the show comes back on, I resume playback and go back to whatever I was doing.
So really, some company that airs ads in shows that I watch are getting more than their money's worth.
I'm used to product placement. I read Slashdot.
I would -never- watch Lost live on TV for one simple reason - commercials. Lost is such a film-like script, the commercials would totally ruin the feel. We missed the first season and rented it on DVD via Netflix (a godsend for tv series!), and watched the whole thing nearly straight through. After getting the 5.1 dolby digital and the full cinematic effect unbroken by tampon and maxi pad commercials, there's no way I'd ever watch a show like that on TV again. I just bought my wife a 140 hour TiVo for Christmas which will arrive this week- I'd consider watching a show like Lost on the TiVo if the commercial skipping worked out. I'd watch comedies and other less immersive television on live TV, but I think for me the days of watching commercials are generally over.
If they start putting placements in the show to the point it's like the Truman Show, they'll lose much of the (large amount of) money I spend yearly when DVD release time comes out.
Unfortunately, it's not like they can edit that crap back out before the DVD release without affecting the show even more.
Placements are a lose lose. If you're paying for the DVD, you shouldn't have to pay for the commercials. Perhaps TiVo needs to kick back a little money to the networks somehow. I know I'd pay an extra couple bucks a month if it meant no ads for me. Especially if networks implemented something that signaled to the TiVo "ok, here's where the ads start.... here's where they end" so when you play the show back, it was completely ad-free, it would not only save space, but would be a nice perk for the customers.
So the question isn't "are they whores?"; that's a given. The question is, should they charge more for more unpleasant/degrading services. I think you'll find that your friendly neighborhood hooker charges more for anal than she does for a quick hand-job--why shouldn't these guys do the same? :)
With a regular television show the commercials are inserted by the local affiliate as the show is being broadcast. In this way the commercials can be localized for the viewing audience. So, if you watch a five year old television show the commercials are current and not frozen in time from five years back. Now the 'commercials' are a fixed part of the content, and it will not be possible to extract them later.
But, this begs me to wonder... Advertisers pay for each time a commercial is run. With this new model will they find themselves having to pay a small fee every time a show is aired as a re-run?
-Chris
-- This sig is only a test. If this were a real sig it would say something witty. --
Well, with I, Robot I didn't have a big problem. Hell, I was looking at it like "Converse? Wow, they are digging. People who've read Asimov's works would remember those from 20 years ago. Buy them now? No."
Hey, a Chicago cop that makes enough to drive a Mercedes? And he isn't on the take? Right...
Also, "US Robotics" now THAT is funny. Are they still in business? Similar to the placement SGI had in "Lost In Space" -- is SGI still in business? Wow!
The product placements I can't stand are that every computer shown on TV is a Dell if it is a server and a Mac if it is a desktop. A Mac with a C: prompt, none-the-less. I've seen more Macs on TV than I have in real life, outside of an Apple store. Ugh!
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Besides the cheesier scripts, how is a television show which takes place in a post-atomic wasteland of the 22nd century supposed to work in product placement?
"In the future all restaurants are Taco Bell"
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Unfortunately, it's not like they can edit that crap back out before the DVD release without affecting the show even more.
Sure they can. They don't just film one version of a scene.
What they have planned is that they will switch products depending on who will pay for it on the DVD and who the target audience is for a particular version of a DVD. For example, DVDs destined for Mexico will have different products shown vs what is seen in a North American DVD release.
This is not a dream, not a dream...we are transmitting from the year 1-9-9-9.
In my humble opinion, there's bad product placement (see I Robot) but there's also good product placement as well (see Blade Runner). I hate it when advertisers force writers to write their product in the script then portrey it as part of the story, but I don't mind at all having a writer think "OK we have a futuristic setting where I want ads here" and then cutting a deal with the corperations for product placement there.
Even having a car in there where it doesn't matter which car it is, I don't mind them giving the car to the highest bidder, but having the actors say "nothing drives like a Ford!" while they're driving it makes me cringe. Basically as long as it's at the writers convenience it's good, but when it's at the advertisers convenience it's bad.
um... did you see I, Robot? now THAT is hardcore product placement. *goes to buy Converse All-Stars Vintage 2004 online to get shipped by Fed-Ex*
This might not be their biggest problem (TiVO). Networks seem to have tapped into this mentality that tries the patience of its viewers every step of the way. It's not just the commercials any more. Now it's having to endure visual clutter like the station ID logo, and these rediculous sliders that zip in and out at the bottom of the screen just after we've already been subject to four or more commercials.
I've found this so annoying in fact, that I've started to look at alternative forms of distraction. Podcasts have grown to fill that niche. They're great- they are personal, it's easy to connect with the producers, and they are/can be eductional and/or informative. Best of all, there are few if any commercials, and NO ANNOYING LOGOS OR SLIDERS. That's gets my vote hands down.
Circumcision is child abuse.
i think the ratio of truly funny commercials to complete crap ones is pretty low. wouldn't you rather be watching the actual programming that had you watching that channel in the first place?
it's kinda like, yea, once in a while you might see something entertaining while sitting in traffic, but do you really wanna sit in traffic all day long just so you can catch those rare moments?
I have to admit, one of those "fresh thoughts are inspired upon sealing the letter" things, that you're right. Advertisers and producers can be creative.
I was thinking of a movie like Mad Max. They could change a line or two, such as "The last of the Ford V-8 Interceptors...would've been a shame to blow it up."
Still, the main reason I don't like it is the slippery slope. While I have no problem with real products being shown, soon that will not be enough for advertisers. They'll want references in the script, important plot points, etc. Like I said, at some point it becomes an infomercial.
As an aside, though, it creates some entertainment in the biz. How much would Ford pay to not only have the hero drive a Ford but to have the bad guys driving Chevys in the big chase scene where the bad guys' cars go out of control and crash into things? How about if Trojan pays money so that a girl gets pregnant when her boyfriend's Lifestyles condom breaks?
Would it be actionable if Company A pays to show Company B's products in a bad light?
I'm hoping that it doesn't spread like trailers on DVDs is starting to. I bought a DVD recently and up came trailers for other DVDs the company marketing people thought I might like. Will definitely be keeping an eye out for which company releases the next film I might be tempted to buy. Same applies to the two-minute piracy warning - I paid for the DVD. I am NOT their target audience.
That pisses me off, too. I think it's part of a secret plot to make pirated dvds actually more attractive (ignoring the price) than the real thing. I'm not sure how the movie industry expects to profit from this though.
Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
I couldn't spot any product placement either, but all those HUGE AUDI LOGOS on the cars were probably distracting me.
The sad thing is that in twenty years we will see scenes exactly like it only they won't be parodies.
Telltale Games: Bone, Sam and Max
OK, so the problem is that adverts have become so intrusive in programming that the audience will spend hundreds of dollars on a device to avoid them. And their solution is "add more adverts which reduce the quality of the shows which attract our audience"? What a great bit of creative thinking.
I don't know how anyone watches US TV, anyway. I find the less than 10 minutes an hour of adverts on commercial channels here (UK) annoying enough and from the constant "fade-to-black and recap a little" you see in US programmes like Lost or ER, TV in the US is adverts with the odd show crammed in between them.
Every time I turn on the damn TV, I get bombarded with people telling me that I really DO need a new home, that the more green pills I pop the better, and that I should try various feminine hygine products or risk severe discomfort (not to mention the news which is half an hour of government ministers lining their pockets at our expense, and dozens of innocent people dying horiffically every day).
The worst part is, there isn't even any shows left to make it worth putting up with this crap. Who the hell wants to watch yet another rip-off of Everybody Wishes Raymond Would Piss The Hell Off?
It's no wonder I haven't turned my TV on in over a year. If there's a show I want to watch, I either download it off the net, or buy it on DVD. The constant force-feeding of ads and bullshit have completely turned me off TV. I feel at least some satisfaction in knowing that they won't be getting any advertising revenue because of me.
But if they start putting ads straight into shows... well, I suppose I'll just have to read more. Who knows, maybe this is a blessing in disguise!
We're geeks... We're the sorcerers of the modern-day world. --
I remember the late 80's.
We just watched our G.I. Joe and Transformers cartoons.
(I guess some people watched My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake.)
Those commercials even had commercials.
(Even though the commercial interruptions usually were for the same toys.)
Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.
Run the commercials less often, maybe only once per half hour. Run fewer total commercials. But don't server everybody the SAME commercials. Make part of the "deal" for getting the PVR be that you will be asked to fill out a questionaire. You can leave it blank, or lie, but you will then be served irrelavant commercials. You will still get 2 min per half hour no matter what you answer, so you might as well answer honestly. You can skip them if you want, so it's up to the commercial writers to make sure you don't WANT to skip them. It actually INCREASES the number of ads the station can sell while DECREASING the ad time each individual gets. And since they can give real stats on the number of people they are reaching with each ad, they can vary the price of the ad accordingly. Almost like "pay per click" on the web. Add some interactivity to the ad so 1) people will bother to watch and interact with it, 2) you get some real stats as to whether they DID watch and interact with it.... The technology is all there. Use it. A TiVo is a PC! Even the crappy Explorer 8000 that the cable companies give away is a PC or sorts.