Product Placements.

[Dags90]

While there apparently exist laws against product placement as a form of payola in a few countries, Canada and the U.K. among them, I'm going to assume that everyone here has at least seen some American media that features product placements.

Product placement has been on the rise in the U.S., after having taken a backseat for a few decades. As more and more people DVR or watch TV online, advertisers are in a continuous struggle to get people to view their ads within the show themselves.

Product placements can range from the relatively innocuous brand name drink cans/bottles with labels aimed at the camera, to suspension of disbelief shattering levels of obnoxious (A brand name product being a major plot point/MacGuffin).

So I was wondering where you guys stood on this issue. With more people skipping commercials, should companies be able to pay shows to run advertisements during the show? Should we get rid of commercials altogether for product placements? Are product placements too invasive?

I was just wondering after some particularly egregious examples I've seen in the last few weeks on TV. Pretty much every prime time TV show is getting something from a cell phone carrier these days, Bing has really been spreading around the money lately. It's not just TV or movies, either. Music videos, other online media, etc.

So, what do you guys think?

Where should the line be drawn? Is anyone OK with things like this, which are becoming more common?

 

[Irridium]

Well, have they tried making advertisements more entertaining? There's a saying that says "why make great when you can make average and do just as well?"

Well average isn't working, so maybe they should start making things great.

See: Old Spice, Kevin Butler, Super Bowl ads

 

[TheHecatomb]

As long as it fits within the context it's being placed in I don't mind at all. For instance take that vending machine scene in the movie The Road, where the father gives his son a can of Coca Cola. It fits within the context of the movie, and honestly the scene would've been stranger if they had went well out of their way to make sure it was brandless or some made-up brand.

 

[SturmDolch]

I don't mind the unobnoxious, unobvious product placement. In fact, I'd rather see characters drinking Coca-Cola than Propa-Cola. It makes the movie more believable and easier to get into.

But if it's a major plot point... Yeah, that's a turn off. If the characters start saying things like, "Be right back, I have to make a call with Verizon on my Sony Aino," then it's excessive and obvious.

It's even invading reality shows. I was watching the Amazing Race, and one contestant said, "Let's go to Wendy's! I'm craving a delicious hamburger." Then they showed him eating it and he says, "Ah, nothing like Wendy's!" So fake. And in Survivor, whenever they have a challenge with a reward "provided by Sears" and they obviously pay the contestants to say things like, "Thank god for Sears!"

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Secret Life Of The American Teenager has been the only show I've seen this one. All of the sudden the mom starts shilling this (what I presumed) a fictional zip cream for 2 minutes and then the plot moved along. During the comericals I learn it was an actual product, and I was rather pissed.

It's bad enough I'm watching a show thats essiesentially just two people talking in every scene, now there selling crap to me?

I'm fine if it's done right, ads something to the media (Reses Pieces in E.T.) or it's just a simple the character drinking a name brand soda.

 

[Dr Druza]

I have no problem with a character using an iPhone or drinking a Starbucks coffee, but when its focused and obviously fake, it just makes the company seem douchey, as well as making it a little less realistic.

Although, if this is truly the road we're going down, I'm going to miss the parody's that we used to see.

 

[Dags90]

But if it's a major plot point... Yeah, that's a turn off. If the characters start saying things like, "Be right back, I have to make a call with Verizon on my Sony Aino," then it's excessive and obvious.

It's even invading reality shows. I was watching the Amazing Race, and one contestant said, "Let's go to Wendy's! I'm craving a delicious hamburger." Then they showed him eating it and he says, "Ah, nothing like Wendy's!" So fake. And in Survivor, whenever they have a challenge with a reward "provided by Sears" and they obviously pay the contestants to say things like, "Thank god for Sears!"

Let me Bing that on my Windows Phone 7, Microsoft's newest operating system!

 

[Acidwell]

Alan wake really annoys me with this since there is even an achievement for looking at a specific set of ads along with a certain battery company being heavily featured.

I don't normally mind but i really felt as if alan wake was slapping me in the face with a load of stuff i didnt want. There really should be a limit on how many ads can be put in one game but that will never happen

 

[Good morning blues]

Honestly, I don't mind it too much; if I were making a movie or a TV show or whatever, I would see switching out the laptop prop with a Macbook as a simple way of getting a bit of extra scrilla in the budget for almost no loss. I don't like it when product placement is out of place (such as the Nokia phone in the new Star Trek) or when there is too much attention drawn to it (the "vintage 2004" shoes in I, Robot), but if it's just a movie set in the modern day and it would be normal for the characters to be using those products, why not take the money?

 

[SturmDolch]

Let me Bing that on my Windows Phone 7, Microsoft's newest operating system!

Ouch... That's bad. The show's actually okay, too.