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NBC to Create Programs Centered on Sponsors
explosivejared writes "It sounds farcical when you first hear it, but NBC has teamed up with an ad agency to produce actual feature programs that are centered around promoting the products of the network's sponsors. The network has already begun production on one sci-fi program entitled 'Gemini Division,' which will act as a platform for products from Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco. The programming will be broadcast via the network's 'digital properties,' e.g. the NBC web site. I guess it was only a matter of time for something like this to come along after product placement became the norm."
The significant point, however, is that the show comes first. By reversing the creative process and using product promotion as a starting point, not only is the quality of content likely to suffer, but the effectiveness of the advertising along with it.
What's worse, it seems these plans will give the brands involved an unprecedented level of influence over the content. From TFA: [It will be] a unique way of giving brands a seat at the table with writers and producers in developing episodic programming that ties directly to brand needs
Amnesty International
Like they say, nothing new under the sun...
Another great reason to continue avoiding network tv.
expandfairuse.org
And after the DVR makes commercial-skipping so much easier. The business model must evolve. Unknown if it will survive. And while I know everyone will say that this will turn most viewers off, the truth is if it's entertaining people will watch.
I love this quote:
The collaborationBSOD jokes aside, I'm trying to figure out how you can communicate helpful technical product information in a science fiction drama show. Is it going to be like the time Jeff Goldblum used Mac OS 9 to take down the alien computer systems? Or is Rosario Dawson going to chase aliens and time travel with a Zune and an MSDN subscription? It's one thing to have a Coke can sitting in plain view, it's another to show how the protagonists succeed using shrinkwrapped software.
So when i pirate this quality content, are they going to try sue me? after all marketing is the entire point of this.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Well, I've found a show where there's absolute no advertising whatsoever, not even hidden. It's obviously very old, from the time when there was no sound, and no colors. Indeed, it's so old that even white was not yet discovered; the screen is just black. That show seems to be sent 24 hours a day without a single advertising break, and no product placement either. It's not easy to find, because they didn't put it on those numbered buttons you usually use to select your channel, but they put it on a separate button, which they labelled "OFF" (I guess that's the broadcaster's name). I can only suggest that channel.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
If the experiment fails and the shows suck, then you have more evidence for the notion that sponsor control corrupts the medium. If it succeeds, it will do so by being genuinely entertaining - and we've essentially created a new medium for creative expression. I think that'd be a good way for big corps to spend more cash subsidizing the arts, even if only indirectly by giving more artists a day job that will give them the funds and experience to support and improve their real work.
So where's the downside? A generation of people who are emotionally invested in brands? We've already got that with the Apple crowd or the Coke vs. Pepsi debate. If this is dislike of legitimizing a long-form commercial, well, people claim to watch the Superbowl "just for the commercials". If it's entertaining, it's serving the same purpose as regular TV and popular commercials.
And it's not like you're being forced to watch these shows. The worst that can happen is that the sponsored shows don't really catch on, so they try it again by adding it to and ruining already popular shows. But then you people get angry and things go back to normal. Or, better, if it turns people off to TV, maybe they'll find something productive to do.
the elitist side of me says that its simply because the dumbing down of america through woodrow wilsons dream education system has made it such that you dont have to pretend not to treat the customer as idiots, because the largest consumer base now...is stupid.
I think many marketers feel that if they made things more subtle or even indirect in its approach, that they'd lose total sales and so its better to market as though everyone is completely unable to think.
Mileage may vary in markets outside the US and Ontario, Canada.
Course, since thats an arrogant standpoint it cant possibly be considered as possible. No one wants to be called stupid.
They can get away with that because Sirius is primarily funded by subscriptions, not advertising.
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