October 5th, 2011
Skipping The Ads On TV? Get Ready For The Shows That Are The Ads
By Linda Holmes
NPR
You know regular product placement, right? Top Chef and its plugs for frozen meals and Gladware, cars being name-checked by action stars speeding away in them, and — of course — the carbonation-off currently taking place between American Idol (COKE! COKE! COKE!) and The X Factor (PEPSI! PEPSI! PEPSI!). But as Elizabeth Blair reports on Wednesday’s Morning Edition, you haven’t seen anything yet.
The ratcheting up of in-show advertising is an outgrowth of advertisers’ increasing desperation to get you to see what they’re trying to show you. As Advertising Age writer Brian Steinberg explains it, the more you have the ability to avoid conventional ads, the more advertisers begin seeking other strategies. If you suspect that not everybody is enthused about this development, you’re right. Blair talks to Robert Weissman of the advocacy group Public Citizen, who has long argued that if you’re paying for any kind of placement of your product in a show, there should be explicit disclosure that it’s a piece of advertising. Weissman is particularly irked by undisclosed advertising to children.
Read more: http://n.pr/qJPeKw