Product Placement

Let’s face it, product placement has been around for a long time. At least since the 1950’s when Gordon’s Gin paid to have Katharine Hepburn’s character in “The African Queen” toss loads of their product overboard. Since then we’ve seen plenty of products featured in thousands of movies. Who doesn’t remember the DeLorean car in the “Back to the Future” movies or the Ray-Ban sunglasses worn by Tom Cruise in “Risky Business?” While we’ve come to expect it, and even look for it, in movies, it was much less prevalent in TV shows. For the most part, product placement on a TV show fits seamlessly into the action without drawing undue attention to the product itself. It was duly noted that Ray Romano’s character on “Everybody Loves Raymond” always drinks Canada Dry Ginger Ale, and Keifer Sutherland’s character on “24” drives a Ford Expedition without them making a big deal out of it.

Lately, it seems that a line has been crossed and there’s an alarming trend to include more “in your face” product placement on TV shows than ever before. Possibly this is due to the increasing popularity of digital video recorders, such as TiVo, that allow viewers to easily skip over commercials.

Two examples occurred on recent episodes of “Everwood.” In one episode, Hannah and Amy walk out of the house to the curb and spend about a minute discussing Hannah’s brand new Mercury Milan that she received as a gift from her mother. As they walked around the car, exclaiming over the stylishness, the look of the headlights, and the cup holders, I felt as if I were watching a commercial. It totally veered away from the storyline. In another episode, Amy walks into the family room where her father is standing in front of the TV with a remote control in his hand. As he clicks through the channels we hear the very familiar sound that a TiVo remote makes. He stops clicking the remote and comments on how much he enjoys the show, “Beauty and the Geek,” which also happens to be a WB show. When Amy asks if she can talk to him, he pauses the show and replies, “That’s what I love about TiVo.”

On an episode of “CSI: NY,” Danny, instead of answering his ringing cell phone immediately as he always has in the past, allows it to ring repeatedly while he and another character discuss his ring tone. At the next commercial break, we are told how we can get the Verizon ring tone featured in the episode.

In a recent “Smallville” episode one character dumps out the contents of her purse containing a very clearly labeled box of Acuvue contact lenses. A discussion of said contacts ensues.

Because these types of in-show ads happen without warning and only last a minute or two, it makes it difficult to skip over them without losing some of the storyline. We are in essence being forced to watch these commercials. Should this become more widespread, I would seriously reconsider my decision to watch a particular show if I am forced to watch a number of mini commercials during the broadcast.

I guess it is inevitable that as the technology advances to allow us to skip over the commercials, so would the technology advancement that may force us to watch them. Recently, Philips, a consumer electronics company, submitted a patent application for technology that allows broadcasters to freeze a channel during commercials, so viewers will not be able to avoid them. This technology would be implemented through either a television or a set-top box and would be available on a program-by-program basis. The company acknowledges that this technology may not sit well with consumers and suggests that viewers may avoid the “feature” by paying a fee to broadcasters. Philips currently has no plans to use the technology in any of its products.

I do recognize the fact that we enjoy programming from the major networks at no charge solely because advertisers have paid the way in exchange for promoting their products to a wide audience. If this means of product exposure becomes less effective for them, you certainly can’t blame them for looking at other ways to get their money’s worth. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all unfolds.