November 14th, 2005
Hollywood Unions Object to Product Placement on TV
By Sharon Waxman
The New York Times
A group of show business unions are denouncing the creeping practice of "stealth advertising," the integration of commercial products into the story lines of television shows, which they say deceives audiences and forces writers and actors to do jobs they were not hired for.
Gary Ruskin, who runs the consumer advocacy nonprofit group Commercial Alert, said the networks were already in violation of existing Federal Communications Committee regulations regarding sponsorship disclosure, and that more rules were needed.
Comments
- Posted by Zeke on November 15th, 2005
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Posted by Ryan Arnold on January 10th, 2006
It is Mr. Ruskin’s opinion that product placement is illegal. I believe that having products placed within films and television programming is much less obtrusive than offering 6-8 minutes of commercials during the the program’s time slot.
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Posted by Ginger Bartlett on January 12th, 2006
I just saw the Diet Dr. Pepper TV ads. They’re actually pretty cute. I love the segment of the girl carrying out the Dr. Pepper birthday cake.
gary ruskin stated that product placement is illegal. so i think we have our answer. the legal system. are there any attorneys out there willing to take on such a case or cases?
older tv viewers are irate over such product placement, but younger viewers see it (literally) as the norm. this is the problem. if a cohort sees it as normal, then there will be no response, because it is, normal. expected, the way it is, etc. so, if there are a few of us upset enough to do something about it, especially attorneys, there is hope that this annoying (at minimum) practice can be abated.
but then, this begs the question what can we, non lawyers do? i can see only one thing. stop viewing tv, and let the tv execs know that we have stopped. if a large enough group boycotts, well then, you know the result.
what do you readers think of this?