Woman reading.
(Megan has a nice piece on the film CLASH BY NIGHT over at Noir of the Week.)
Did anyone else see this? I was watching THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE and in the episode, she made a sandwich using Hellman's Mayonaise, drawing attention to the product. We shoot immediately over to a semi-commercial with Bobby Flay, TV chef, extolling its
virtues. Next comes an actual commercial for Hellmans Mayo.HUH!
This was the most obvious product placement I've seen yet on TV, and it really makes me angry that it was not only used so blatantly on the show but alluded to by Julie Louis Dreyfus as a superior product. The jar didn't just sit on the table, in other words. Same for Flay.
And CBS is the least needy network right now. What do you think? Could I have possibly have dreamed this?
26 comments:
Were there a lot of other commercials, too? Because I've seen the kind of thing before where one product sponsors the entire show. I kind of like that.
No (Coca-Cola), Patti (Valvoline), product (Jif) placement (Chevrolet) is (Arm & Hammer) here (Izod) to (Bank of America) stay (Ethan Allen) and (Sony) you (Texaco) can (McDonalds) never (Scott's Lawn Care) be (Wal-Mart) sure (FTD) when (Hard Case Crime) or (Arrid) where (GE) it (Huggies) will (Geico) strike (Budweiser)!
Patti, I'm working on a TV show right now and one of the very experienced writers sometimes reminds us that we're really only writing the stuff that goes between the commercials. No commercials, no shows.
Finding the right balance will always be a challenge, I guess.
Still, our show is not doing any product placements at all and in fact we have to cover up any logos of any real products. But every show has to find its own budget...
Another reason to reject TV watching. I remember seeing this kind of thing in the movie Torque and it really irritated me.
I have a strange urge to get a Coke and peanut-butter sandwich with baking soda from the McDonalds at Wal-Mart. Oh, and I guess I should pick up some fertilizer, deodorant, diapers, beer, and a crime novel while I'm there.
I'm very suggestible. :)
I've read about this. It's how the networks are trying to get around the number of people who records their shows, then watch them later on DVRs, skipping the commercials. They're hoping to get the commercial seamlessly integrated into the show. I wonder how this is going to play out for repeats? Would Hellman's have to pay TBS every time this show gets re-run in syndication?
I lost John somehow. I hate this comment moderation stuff.
I think they had regular commercials too. It was just so blatant.
Oh, those tricksters. I know I would have missed the commercial on the show but maybe not the Bobby Flay one. Yikes.
Does anyone remember the old radio shows like Fibber McGee and Molly where the announcer would come in and always (humorously) insert the sponsor's product into the conversation. Harlow Wilcox talked about Johnson's Glo-Coat so much that Fibber called him "Waxy." If they did things creatively like that now, commercials wouldn't be so hard to put up with. :)
Somebody passes out on a hospital show, and they yell, "Quick somebody get this guy some Folgers, stat!" -- "Dark or medium roast, doctor?"
I don't think I ever listened to any radio show except something called Houseparty with Art Linkletter. Don't ask me why.
Hellman's is a regional brand, so you most likely did not see a national commerical. If they knew about the placement they may have bought regionally or locally.
Maybe but the threefold attack seems pretty determined.
Patti ... I agree that product placement like you described can be really disruptive to the show. It's in movies, too, and sometimes blatantly so. When you think about it, though, it's a miracle it hasn't been worse, sooner. Advertising is by nature intrusive. People (owner of product) want to reach consumer. Think back to early days of baseball and all the company and product logos painted around the outfield fence. Think of the books from the 50s and 60s that had a cigarette ad stuck in the middle of the book. When you're out driving and see those billboards along the highway? Think how they're being replaced with giant video monitors for ads. it will only get worse.
West of the Mississippi, Hellman's mayo used to be known as Best Foods mayo, but if the California-based NEW ADV. OF OLD CHRISTINE has her shoveling in the Hellman's, I suspect this rather better name for the product has gone nationwide.
Well, the bad Diet Coke routine in the pilot for LIFE ON MARS (US) was pretty blatant, too. Charles, I note that your greatest irritation seems to have been with a theatrical film rather than a tv item.
Also, Patti, I believe you're a bit young for all but the tail end of the first blush of radio programming...the few CBS stragglers (GUNSMOKE, SUSPENSE, YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR) to make it just barely into the '60s, BOB AND RAY on NBC, and not too much more, even if drama never completely left the radio airwaves...with projects like Rod Serling's ZERO HOUR, NPR's EARPLAY (and the imported LORD OF THE RINGS and domestic STAR WARS miniseries), the CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER, THE NATIONAL RADIO THEATER OF CHICAGO syndicated to public radio, CBS's GENERAL MILLS ADVENTURE THEATER and the SEARS RADIO THEATER (which in its second season became the MUTUAL RADIO THEATER, changing networks obviously), NBC's abortive revival of X MINUS ONE the 1950s sf stalwart anthology, and the Firesign Theater's NICK DANGER series (and, to be fair, Christian radio's Loooong-running UNSHACKLED), the 1970s probably saw more hours of radio drama logged in the US than the '60s did...and those who could hear CBC got to hear even more and often better (some of which was also imported for US public radio). Hell, CBS RADIO MYSTERY, ZERO HOUR, and SEARS RADIO were five-nights-a-week strips, though in each case the heavy production demands showed.
I hate product placemets and would never do it with Tarnished Star. I mean it would be so crass to place Tarnished Star on a shelf in a scene. Almost as bad as mentioning Tarnished Star three times in a comment. Ahh well must go now and read Tarnished Star.
I guess I date from the time when you never mentioned a real product on TV. When shows went out of their way to create bogus soda, cereal, etc. Frank, I do hate the new video adverts at ballparks. You tend to watch them rather than the game, just like you watch the crawl.
Todd-you are the historian of all earthly things.
Long live Tarnished Star.
Actually, Frank, the cig ads in the middle of paperbacks were more a 1970s thing, when the cancer companies were banned from broadcast ads and were finding innovative ways to invade the consciousness (and the paperback publishers were not averse to picking up a few more bucks in inflationary times...the digest-sized fiction magazines, bound by the same printers, also took these on at this time). I hadn't been to a professional sports event for decades when I went to a WUSA (the first women's pro soccer league) game a few years back and was startled by how much nonsense was going on distractingly on and just off the field...I paid to see soccer, dammit!
I have to wonder which show John's working on...but yes, kissing up to the sponsors is long tradition, which is why shows in the '60s didn't want to offend any potential sponsors by casually/accidentally using their rival's products on camera...even if you started your series aware that Best Foods was going to run ads for Hellman's and Skippy Peanut Butter in the first half of the season, that was no guarantee that the second half of the season or the summer reruns wouldn't be sponsored by Kraft and whoever makes Peter Pan.
And, Patti, a true historian wouldn't've forgotten THE NATIONAL LAMPOON RADIO HOUR in 1970s commercial syndication or NPR's importation of the BBC's HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY...
Patti there is an upside to not being so observant and channel flipping...I never notice if there is product placement or not.
It's a Canadian cop show--The Bridge, I think.
WM-You would have noticed this one. I miss a lot but this was really in your face.
http://kpfa.org/archive/id/49781
No product placement on this radio drama, but some too-brittle acting (and some extraneous station ID chatter at the beginnng of the temporary link):
As Pacifica Radio puts it:
Act One Radio Drama - "Earth and Sky"
By Douglas Post, starring: Annette Bening, George Murdoch, Ed Begley, Jr., and John Mahoney. Head firmly in the clouds, Sara McKeon moves in the rarefied world of library work and poetry readings. She seems completely unsuited to investigating the sudden, brutal murder of her lover. A haunting mystery, infused with humor, poetry and urban grit.
(and, fwiw, my post on product placement is currently MIA on the page.)
"To this day, Hellmann's® Mayonnaise is sold east of the Rockies and Best Foods® Mayonnaise is sold west."
So, presumably for the West Coast feed, this segment of this episode was reshot with the Best Foods brand mentioned instead of Hellman's...a lot of work for something that will be cut out of the syndie repeat version, I suspect, but I guess H/BF (and its customers) are paying the freight...
Do I have them all? I hate comment moderation but I also hate going back over three years of blog entries and removing the spam someone put there.
(expletive deleted) ad bastards! They need to to chill out have a frost glass of Sam Adams Premium Ale or Sam Adams Lager.
Looking at the second-season CHRISTINE dvds with my friend Alice last night, an episode toward the end of the season devotes a good five minutes to Placing Home Depot references and setting much of that time in the store itself.
I missed that one. It's not the sort of show you watch devotedly although I like her and the actor who plays her brother. I may have to boycott it after two infractions.
Post a Comment