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NBC is leveraging its Monday night show Las Vegas to help promote the network's Olympic coverage. A two and a half minute mini-movie will appear in tonight's episode as well as appear on 10,000 movie screens. Chevy's in on the deal two and will feature several of its vehicles in tonight's episode and in the movie which follows fans of Olympic medalists from Vegas to Torino. The mini-movie morphs from a real storyline in the episode.
It appears to be one of the most integrated promotions/product placement in recent memory and, as is always the case with these things, it'll either bomb or succeed seamlessly. I guess we'll be watching Las Vegas tonight.
Product Invasion, the folks behind Subservient Donald are, again, taking on product placement proliferation, this time with Survivor, and have created some spoof footage of Survivor's Jerry Manthey in which producer's urge her to shill for Home Depot, Scope, Dawn, and Pepsi. While it's a bit over the top, it still calls attention to the maddening and overly forced attempts by marketers and networks to shamelessly shill.
We're about a week behind on this but, according to Google, it ain't news yet. So we're going to help make it news by telling you that the Writers Guild of America, West, some of whom work as reality TV writers, has launched Subservient Donald, part of Product Invasion and yet another take on the now famous Subservient Chicken. The Guild, which recently called for a code of conduct to govern product placement on television and require disclosure during credits, are behind Product Invasion which is an attack on the insanity of television product placement. Subservient Donald is a humorous take on the topic featuring a Donald Trump look-a-like who spouts product-laden snark in reaction to various commands. Let's see what kind of link-fest this thing cooks up.
The Writer's Guild of America along with the Screen Actors Guild wants product placements to be disclosed at the beginning of television shows and movies as well as a cut of the fee paid for the product placement. The Writer's Guild, today, called for a code of conduct to govern product placement that would give actors, writers and directors more control over how a product is represented on TV or in a movie. It all points to even more interruption during TV shows as various disclaimers scroll by causing the TiVo button to get even more increased usage.
The first of a series of five videos, which will have ads sold in them trough a deal with MSN, Jib Jab has created Big Box Mart, a short that skewers big box retailers poking fun at merchandise created with cheap labor oversees, stores full of crap no one needs, Americans losing manufacturing jobs and the kicker: the same company that eliminated those jobs is scooping up the unemployed it displaced to work for low wages in its own big box stores.
Other videos will be created and sponsored by brands which will be place ads within the video as well as be features, perhaps no always positively, in the video. Jib Jab Co-Founder says it's all in good fun. "If you have a sense of humor about your own brand, and poke a little fun at it, then people appreciate that. It's a more honest approach, maybe." Yes, maybe.
In a subtle bit of Product placement, Mountain Dew has financed a snowboarding film, opening December 2, called First Descent. The brand is said to make subtle, casual appearances in the film but will not, it seems, be overbearing. Audiences will make that determination.
Blaming the high cost of branded entertainment production and, according to one anonymous BMW exec who blamed German bureaucracy, BMW has ended its use of branded entertainment. BMW, of course, spawned branded entertainment in its current form with its The Hire films. The fact the car maker recently switched entertainment agencies, had its entertainment exec leave and is in the middle of an agency review, surely, contributed to the move.
In an effort to institutionalize branded content, Stephen Mitchell, creator of the 80's television show Interview, has proposed a writing curriculum, called Branded Alliance, to educate people on the creation of brand integrated concepts suitable for feature films, television, alternative media and games. Mitchell hopes the course creates a pool of talent capable of generating entertainment/advertising content for marketers.
Mitchell says the course will stress a conceptual and innovative approach to the subject of brand integration. Students will be instructed in the art of blending story content and corporate message in a manner that is seamless. "Unlike product placement, which can be done by the numbers, there is no single definition of branded entertainment," Mitchell says. "It also forces us to redefine 'product,' for it can be a label, an idea, a city or anything else that that has the backing of corporate partner. At least this sounds a bit more honest than the television show which duped viewers (Hollywood elite) into believing the interviews were real versus stunts to promote Mitchell's work.
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Sure to make each episode as laborious as Trump's The Apprentice, Buick, Delta, Song, Random House, Westin Hotels and others have signed with Mark Burnett to be part of the new Apprentice: Martha Stewart. While the blatant intrusiveness of these full episode sponsorship may grate on the nerves, they bring in millions. The aggravation may be offset by Martha herself who, we venture to say, will be far more interesting than Trump.
Today, we can't seem to get away from the topic of product placement. We received a link from Terry Heaton of Donata Communications who, last night, saw an episode of the USA alien abduction show, The 4400, in which Budweiser had a blatant placement Heaton thought went over the edge of credibility.
On his blog, he describes the scene, writing, "Following the funeral of one of their Korean War buddies, a group of guys head to a local pub to lift a few and remember the fellow. A story is told where one of the guys 'returned with three cases of Budweiser,' whereupon one of the guys lifts a can. The camera takes a tight shot. The guy says, 'Look at this can. It's just like it was back then.' Cut to a wide shot that shows the table is full of Budweiser cans."
While Heaton is one man, others certainly reacted as he did. "The writers of this show must have had a fit over writing this. Here's an entire scene in a drama that was created to sell Budweiser beer. Frankly, it ruined the show for me. An essential part of good drama is to draw the viewer into the story. That'll never happen again for me with this program."
If product placement generates this sort of reaction, it's not the sort of marketing tactic that'll stick around for long.
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