Branded entertainment taking over television...

[dutchdemocrat]

One more step closer to total corporate domination and infaltration. I can't tell you how refreshing it is to watch European television with its few commercials (if any) and avoidance of this fucked up trend.

US networks cash in as advertisers turn to product placement

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Friday September 30, 2005
The Guardian


The American Idol judges sit with Coca-Cola cups on the table in front of them. The contestants on the new series of The Apprentice hang out in a Poggenpohl kitchen. The good guys in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation zap around in GMC Yukon vehicles.

These are the latest and most visible signs of advertisers' fight against the growing power of the television viewer: the ability to edit out the commercials. TiVo, Sky+ and other digital recorders allow viewers to watch programmes without having to endure the advertisement breaks that are rife in US television.

As sales of these devices have grown - they are expected to be in 55m US homes by 2010 - so companies have looked to other ways to get their products on to the small screen. Their favourite method is what was once known by the quaint term "product placement", but now goes under the somewhat more sinister title of integrated or branded entertainment.


Bottles of Arrowhead water and Diet Pepsi as well as bags of Cheetos, Sun Chips and Ruffles are prominently featured in one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political TV advertisement.

It was reported this week that spending by US advertisers on product placement had grown from $550m (about £310m) in 2004 to an expected $825m this year. The number of placements on television grew by 100% in the first quarter of the year, and a further 100% in the second quarter. "Product placement is like crack cocaine to the networks," said Variety magazine.

The leader is The Contender, which, according to Nielsen Media Research, had 7,500 instances of product placement in the first six months of the year.

SNIP

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1581714,00.html