It looks like there is no escaping advertising and marketing in all it’s many forms. The evidence speaks for itself:
- TV shows leading into Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) with obvious ad tie-ins:
But it begs the question: What if the game turns out to be little more than a commercial?
- TV shows leading to the development of action figures!?! Not surprised that Disney is involved in this one. They are, after all, the kings of merchandising.
- Then there’s advertainment…..
where brands and programs become one….goes beyond typical product placement and writes brands in as actual characters. So rather than not so subtly hitting the viewer with occasional product drops, the same brand(s) will consistently enter the storyline.
- There’s the obvious “egregarious” product placement, as pointed out by the Writer’s Guild as per MediaPost Publication’s TV Watch:
If a network or studio hints that a certain car manufacturer, cell phone company, or cracker company, might be of help to a borderline show (read that as big media budgets for the network advertising department), then inorganic product integrations will see the light of day.
Seventy-five percent of product placement deals on TV right now are done with no money exchanging hands, ….. Writers want to get into the dialogue about product placement before all this changes dramatically.
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Beyond just who gets a cut of the money from practices like product placement, this practice shouldn’t be altering the content of a show.
Producers are…worried about being forced to use products in their stories in ways that make them look silly.
- And they say that even the younger Myspace generation which is “very skeptical of media” can be reached…..
Realizing that “they’ve grown up being told who they are and what they [should] listen to, being marketed to,” helped the company figure out “how to talk to the MySpace generation,” Digiaro says.
“This generation is all about self-expression and consuming content in its own way.”
- It’s everywhere. I even saw it the other day on a recent Dr. Phil episode, where a gift for one of the guests was a Sliverado car, and how Dr. Phil went on and on about the details of the car. Part of the episode, as well as more advertising, is on his website (follow the above link to the section entitled, “A Gift for Good Work”). And, I do remember him even saying something to the effect that “this is like a commercial”. It was definitely rather overdone.
Money. Money. Money.
Just saw the latest Ask.com commerical on TV. Finally found them online, too. The bear attacks one is rather strange. Compares the stress of a bear attack to the relaxing feeling that the Ask.com experience gives you. Uses the tag line “When your life depends on it (i.e., a search engine). Use Ask.com.” Strange. Low budget. But it did succeed in catching my attention.
Watch all four and the point about what makes Ask.com better than Google becomes much more clear.
Apparently the guy in these commercials, Apostolos Gerasoulis , is the creator of Ask.com. My conclusion….overall, these ads are more interesting than strange.
I like it when companies are being honest with us. Take, for instance, the wrapper below. This is the print on the inside of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup candy wrapper. In addition to the “secret code” for eBay auction points, if it’s not too small to read, take a look. And, I must admit, I don’t know why I read this, I wasn’t planning on cashing in the points, especially since in the past I don’t know how many point-earning systems I’ve abandoned and lost track of. Anyway, I’m digressing.
My point is, read the last two sentences…”Candy is a treat. Please consume in moderation.” ( FYI: I just now heard a radio commercial for this same promo and that also included these last two sentences as part of the verbal fine print.)
I consider this “warning message” to be respectful and fair. I am curious to know whether these two sentences were placed by eBay or Hershey. But, either way, it definitely enhances my view of both companies. (Kind of along the lines of Tylenol’s “Stop. Think.” ads which basically say to use-our-product-properly-or-don’t-use-it-at-all. )
This is in stark contrast to one soda company executive I heard interviewed on tv recently. This exec was questioned in response to recent legislation that was passed to get soda (i.e., not diet, only regular, plus other “sugary” soft drinks) out of the schools in order to help combat the obesity epidemic.
This CEO was asked by a reporter: “Isn’t this further proof that soda isn’t good for us?” And the executive answered something like this: “No. It’s more about schools being a unique environment which should be free from commercialization.” I thought that was a rather corporate-spin type of answer.
The Vermont Teddy Bear company has been coming out with some tv commercials and products that are being touted by some as less-than-wholesome.
In the end, I guess you win some and you lose some. So, whether or not these ads are deemed successful will likely depend entirely on the audience they are trying to reach. I assume they’ve done their research and are able to quantify how much people connect with the brand name and the brand’s image to know whether or not they will actually lose sales from people who will be turned off any of these other approaches.
The VTB Co. took quite some criticism for their Valentine’s day tv ads/products:
Now with Mother’s Day fast approaching, VTB has another tv ad out there which has a less-than-traditional tone. Here’s how I would describe it: A bunch of dad’s are secretly working on making hand-made Mother’s Day gifts and a little boy comes in telling them that they instead should be buying a Vermont Teddy Bear. Here the dad’s are depicted as being “less-than-intelligent” and the child is shown as the smart mature one. I personally don’t care for this type of role reversal which many tv shows seem to take, too. I’ll keep an eye out for which groups find these VTB Mother’s Day ads and products offensive.
Or, maybe it’s true that even bad publicity is still publicity.
