Hi, My Name Is Earl And I Smoke Winstons
Posted on | February 2, 2006 at 9:18 pm | 4 Comments
Tonight’s episode of Smallville had the most blatant case of product placement I have ever seen. I swear, the episode totally stopped dead for 30 seconds while one of the characters posed unnaturally for the camera and plugged Acuvue contact lenses by name and package. The lenses were written into the story just so they could do that – there was no real reason for them to be there at all other than the advertising. Not surprisingly, Acuvue was also constantly hawking their “Reveal the Real You” sweepstakes during the (real) commercials, where you could win a trip to the Smallville season finale wrap party. I tell ya, they sure got their money’s worth with this one.
I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve been predicting this for a few years now. In this Age of TiVo, the sponsors have to somehow get their message across to people who are skipping over the commercials. We’re used to this kind of thing in reality shows, but now it’s spreading to the dramas as well. Aren’t TV shows short enough already with the commercial time constantly growing longer? Direct product placement within the show makes even less room for the story. And don’t even get me started on the animated, noisy plugs for other shows that pop up on the bottom of the screen. How soon until those are advertising products rather than shows?
I’m just waiting for that episode of Lost where Hurley exclaims, “Dude, it’s a good thing we have Energizer batteries for our flashlights! They never go out!” Or the episode of 24 where the terrorists lose and then lament that it was because they didn’t have a Motorola (or whatever) cell phone like Jack Bauer has.
Other good potential pairings:
- Desperate Housewives/Tupperware (”Hey Bree, I thought this was supposed to be Poker Night.”)
- Gilmore Girls/Valium (”Please, make her stop talking so fast!”)
- Alias/Wigs.com (”We ship anywhere in the world overnight.”)
- Charmed/Victoria’s Secret Angels Secret Embrace Bra (”The best way to distract demons.”)
- CSI/Clorox Bleach (”When you just have to wipe out all traces of your DNA.”)
Latre.
Comments
4 Responses to “Hi, My Name Is Earl And I Smoke Winstons”
February 3rd, 2006 @ 2:06 pm
I had a response to this all typed up, but as it’s a topic of longtime interest and loathing, it ended up more of an essay. Suffice to say, things can and will and are changing. The marketing industry is fighting its oncoming marginalization by annoying its shrinking audience more and more. Someday, with any luck, consumer-financed direct media will become the norm and middleman (advertiser) funded “mass” media will be a fading relic. The impact will not just be economic – imaging the cultural shifts when the distorting effects of youth-obsessed adverting are lifted.
On that day, I will smile as I click “Pay” to give Joss $2 for the next episode of Firefly, then recline with a frosty-cold mug of Slurm…
February 3rd, 2006 @ 2:11 pm
Here’s to the end of advertiser-funded “mass” media. I’d drink to that. It would certainly weed out a lot of marginal stuff.
February 16th, 2006 @ 12:13 am
If you want to get a peek at the future of TV advertising, take a look at Cringely’s “Google’s Grand Plan to Take Over TV Advertising” http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060105.html
In a nutshell, his thoughts are that in an age where your TV comes into your house over the internet, all your TV commercials will be tailored for you personally, based on your internet purchase and search habits. Scarry thought, but people might actually *watch* commercials if they were for something you were actually interested in.
February 17th, 2006 @ 11:52 am
Yeah, but I don’t trust the machines to determine what it is I’m actually interested in. It’s like how I keep getting catalogs for clothing companies because at some point in the past I ordered a gift for a friend of family member from their website.
And things I search for have very little determination in things I buy…