MTV Blurs Ad/Content Line With New Programming Block

We'd have to see it to render fair judgment and we missed its debut opting instead for Survivor and John Hughes Sixteen Candles which unintentionally sucked us in as fast as people are leaving Agency.com but last night, MTV debuted its mixed up programming block. The block merges programming with advertising and intertwined them in a heightened fashion purposefully aiming to blur the line between entertainment and commerce.

MTV describes it thusly, "Interweaving show content and the commercial experience, MTV's Thursday Night Block will present continuous engagement for the MTV audience - where shows will merge into one another, and programming content will play in commercial time - throughout a continuous 2-hour block."

Usually, this is a red flag for us as, in most cases, it tricks people and makes them work all that much harder to discern the difference between programming and advertising. Not that we think people are stupid and can't figure it out but, for us, its more a matter of annoyance. hen we watch programming, that's what we want. We want to be entertained. Not sold. Of course, we also understand exactly why MTV is doing this. You do too. It's too easy to skip ads leaving the marketer with an even worse ROI than they already get.

Like we said, we'll reserve judgment because with delicate things such as this, it's all in the presentation. It could go either way. It could be a horrific display of product placement gone mad or it could be the best representation of reality. Those of you who viewed the block are welcomed to chime in and let us know how it went.

Written by Steve Hall    Comments (2)     File: Opinion, Television, Trends and Culture     Apr- 6-07