Very good programme - though could have been twice as long. And some clear examples of why I hope we never cave into product placement too - certainly in scripted shows anyway.
Interesting to here they're planning on launching Millionaire in Afghanistan.
And some clear examples of why I hope we never cave into product placement too - certainly in scripted shows anyway.
I agree with you on things like that Desperate Housewives clip where she specifically said the name of the car and had it right there spinning round on a turntable, but other little things like the judges drinking out of Coca Cola glasses isn't explicate and isn't going to cause any harm to anyone. So I'd support product placement in that form.
Anyway, great show. I liked the fact they went out the way to go to Macedonia rather than just settle on something similar in America. The bloke said something like the BBC's production house in America is one of the biggest in Hollywood. Surely that's not true?!
And some clear examples of why I hope we never cave into product placement too - certainly in scripted shows anyway.
I agree with you on things like that Desperate Housewives clip where she specifically said the name of the car and had it right there spinning round on a turntable, but other little things like the judges drinking out of Coca Cola glasses isn't explicate and isn't going to cause any harm to anyone. So I'd support product placement in that form.
Have to say, the product placement in the Biggest Loser segment looked atrocious, didn't it?
As if filtered tap water is good for losing weight
And the Desperate Housewives Buick car ad was also terrible.
I was very unconvinced by the ITV chappy saying he felt that it was unfair that we import shows "chock full" of product placement - those particular parts have never made it on air in the UK - so really, he's being quite disingenuous.
I'd have more respect for his position if he said, "we may go bust if we don't do the same thing".
Very good programme - though could have been twice as long. And some clear examples of why I hope we never cave into product placement too - certainly in scripted shows anyway.
I'm in favour of product placement but only mildly and by real brands replacing made up brands (e.g. Freshco in Corrie) in scripts.
Very good programme - though could have been twice as long. And some clear examples of why I hope we never cave into product placement too - certainly in scripted shows anyway.
I'm in favour of product placement but only mildly and by real brands replacing made up brands (e.g. Freshco in Corrie) in scripts.
How do you draw that line though? The problem with product placement is that many seem to be looking for some sort of implied sense of decency in it all. Ultimately, it's the same amount of whoring out, so I'm not sure it really matters how coy programme makers are about how it comes across.
And once you start allowing it at all, do you leave it down to producers to make that judgement, or stick in a regulator whose job it is to decide arbitrarily how blatant placements can be? I suspect that would be very messy.
What I don't like too is how they proposed it has to be made clear to viewers at the beginning of the programme that product placement is used and what products they are. Personally if they did it, I'd rather they didn't highlight it too much other than having a logo (or just a reference) in the credits.
And some clear examples of why I hope we never cave into product placement too - certainly in scripted shows anyway.
I agree with you on things like that Desperate Housewives clip where she specifically said the name of the car and had it right there spinning round on a turntable, but other little things like the judges drinking out of Coca Cola glasses isn't explicate and isn't going to cause any harm to anyone. So I'd support product placement in that form.
Have to say, the product placement in the Biggest Loser segment looked atrocious, didn't it?
I thought that bit was a joke when it came on, I couldn't believe it was actually real!
Gavin Scott posted:
I was very unconvinced by the ITV chappy saying he felt that it was unfair that we import shows "chock full" of product placement - those particular parts have never made it on air in the UK - so really, he's being quite disingenuous.
They have been known to slip through quite a few times. Like last year on Desperate Housewives there was camera shot that zoomed out of a Nissan logo on the back of a car and then moved onto the scene itself that was shown on both E4 and C4.
And then there was ITV2 who got rapped for not editing out the Ford product placement films that were shot with all the American Idol participants flying about in Ford cars in the style of a music video. They did this for weeks without editing them out. Of course, ITV2 do blur over the Coca Cola bottles in American Idol.
One other piece of really obvious product placement which I'm surprised Ofcom didn't hear about was Big Brother USA on E4 last year where the housemates had to compete in tasks to see a film that would be released to the public that week. They did this twice, one of the films was 21 and I think the other was What Happens in Vegas. Basically when the housemates saw the films they had a load of clips of the film followed by shots of the housemates laughing their heads off at mundane moments and then having diary room clips were the housemates would be going on about how great the film was and how great the actors were in it while the housemates who lost the task would be saying how they really wanted to see the film when they got out of the house.
I think Ofcom really need to realise that Hollywood films and some British films are packed with product placement, whether they're for kids or adult audiences: everyone's exposed to product placement whether they know it or not through cinema and generally people don't care. I don't really understand why television can't be the same.
Ironically with American Idol though it's blurring out the coke glasses which draws attention to them.
I wouldn't say those film examples in BBUSA are any more "product placement" than a regular TV show showing an exclusive trailer or clips during an interview, or indeed any singer or band plugging their music on any given show. The X Factor is full of product placement on that score with the constant Westlife soundtracks.
Another thing of interest in the programme was the discussion of how Millionaire originally (at least) funded it's prize through the premium rate line - which of course we all were aware of. However, they completely failed to touch upon how the premium rate scandals had affected it, and how on the one hand a few years ago OFCOM were encouraging them as alternative revenue streams, but now it's not quite so easy.
