It isn't supposed to be integrated in the storylines but the problem is as soon as you introduce premises if scenes take place within those premises they become part of the storyline. Possible though they'll be sets we only ever see the frontage of.
A Costa Coffee station within the corner shop or Kabin would be less intrusive, but then again pre-product placement the Kabin had the Post Office logo plastered all over it so it's not a completely unfamilar concept.
Thin end of the wedge if you ask me. Atrocious and blatant product placement here we come. “Shall we go to Costa and get a delicious gingerbread latte?” “Ee, no chuck, I’ll stick to me meat’n’potato pie from t’co-op”.
No thanks.
Don’t forget Product Placement isn’t meant to affect editorial decisions.
It isn't supposed to be integrated in the storylines but the problem is as soon as you introduce premises if scenes take place within those premises they become part of the storyline. Possible though they'll be sets we only ever see the frontage of.
A Costa Coffee station within the corner shop or Kabin would be less intrusive, but then again pre-product placement the Kabin had the Post Office logo plastered all over it so it's not a completely unfamilar concept.
They’ve said it’ll only be frontages, presumably on the new street that they are building. Yes we will see people walking and just happening to stop for an altercation with the signage in view, but I expect that will be it.
Ironically if you watch the ITV3 repeats from the 80s, you’ll see far more branded products on screen than you do nowadays with product placement permitted.
Probably due to the fact that back then it was all free advertising and no money was passing hands, any company was happy to get their logo on-screen, whereas now I imagine if a real product appeared that hadn't paid for PP, it would piss off the companies who have paid. So the soaps are all full of fake brand names these days (though I guess with modern technology it's a lot easier and cheaper to design and produce your own fake products packaging anyway, whereas in the past they'd have to rely on real ones).
Still a bit ridiculous though, for example, every single bus that's gone through Emmerdale for the past several years has a McCain's advert on the side!
Last edited by james-2001 on 31 January 2018 10:50pm - 2 times in total
I think so far the product placement on Coronation Street has been subtle. A very believable Interflora sign on the florists and the occasional advert on the bus stops are the only ones I really notice.
It's been mostly the same all across British TV really. I remember the first ever product placement was a coffee machine on a shelf on This Morning- which I doubt anyone would have even picked up on if it hadn't been reported.
Still a bit ridiculous though, for example, every single bus that's gone through Emmerdale for the past several years has a McCain's advert on the side!
That is possible, There was a bus from aberdeen that had the same advert going around ( even after it moved to the central belt) for 7 years, the advert for a radio station which is no defunded.. it's still there on the side of the bus i believe...
I’m pretty sure that, back in the day, unofficial product placement was simply a result of the set designers/properties buyers placing (probably entirely unintentionally) believable products on shelves in soap opera supermarkets/corner shops etc. Not really a problem in Alf’s corner shop, and if anyone spotted and
really
objected to obvious Fairy Liquid on the shelves then they clearly weren’t paying enough attention to Deirdre’s love life storyline. It was more of a problem in the Soap Pub of course, which is why entirely fictional brewers like Newton and Ridley were invented. It wasn’t just confined to ITV. Arkwright’s shop in Open All Hours is packed with commercially available products. It wasn’t product placement. It was just honest set dressing.
When characters began working in ‘supermarkets’ then obviously they needed to invent brand names like Bettabuys (was it?) in order to get around the more blatant problems caused by them working at Tesco or Sainsbury’s.
Bettabuy's was filmed in a real branch of Morrisons, and if you look closely you can quite often see Morrison's signs around (the Bettabuy ones were clearly made up in the same style, presumably so that the actual Morrison's signs stood out less).
Happened with Firman's Freezers too where you could quite often see the Farmfoods logos everywhere.
There are stickers with product logos all over Alf's corner shop though, I'm wondering if that isn't just set design, and they did actually get them from the companies. A "Family Choice" logo appeared behind the counter around 1989-ish too.
What happened to the Family Choice branded corner shops anyway? They used to be everywhere in the 90s!
Last edited by james-2001 on 1 February 2018 7:31pm
I’m pretty sure that, back in the day, unofficial product placement was simply a result of the set designers/properties buyers placing (probably entirely unintentionally) believable products on shelves in soap opera supermarkets/corner shops etc. Not really a problem in Alf’s corner shop, and if anyone spotted and
really
objected to obvious Fairy Liquid on the shelves then they clearly weren’t paying enough attention to Deirdre’s love life storyline. It was more of a problem in the Soap Pub of course, which is why entirely fictional brewers like Newton and Ridley were invented. It wasn’t just confined to ITV. Arkwright’s shop in Open All Hours is packed with commercially available products. It wasn’t product placement. It was just honest set dressing.
Slightly hazy memories here, but I’m sure I heard that in the case of cars, very often manufacturers would provide vehicles for free in return for them appearing on screen. IIRC it made the papers when Mike Baldwin got a new car which wasn’t a Jag, because Jaguar didn’t want to supply another one, fearing that the brand was becoming associated with slimy businessmen.
Bettabuy's was filmed in a real branch of Morrisons, and if you look closely you can quite often see Morrison's signs around (the Bettabuy ones were clearly made up in the same style, presumably so that the actual Morrison's signs stood out less).
Happened with Firman's Freezers too where you could quite often see the Farmfoods logos everywhere.
I think you mean Iceland, because the Firman's logo was identical to the Iceland logo of the 90s
