Is the advertising industry being disingenuous about it's survivability?
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
In episode 76 of Sex and the City, Miranda, the show's favorite love-struck lawyer, is pining over the 'Steve-sized hole in her life' (HBO). Luckily for her, she soon finds herself filling that emptiness with a new passion, TiVO, a gadget which allows her to record all of her favorite television shows for later viewing with the added comfort of commercial skipping. But rather than dwell forever in feminist stereotype (machines replacing men, sexual liberation through technology, etc.) the plot thickens when her housekeeper breaks the beloved instrument. Tears, frustration, and depression begin to well up, but soon a techno geek's fantasy manifests as Steve returns to win Miranda's heart by repairing the downed device. Now she has obtained both rewards: Steve-O and the TiVO.
The most compelling aspect of this episode, however, is not the plot but what the plot centers around – the TiVO device itself. Having a storyline revolve around an item is product placement at its finest, but this specific item also has an interesting context. TiVO, and devices like it, have become one of the main justifications for what has been a monumental increase in product plugs on television. 2005 has seen an increase of 84% in product placement from 2004 (Wired). NBC took the boot with 21,286 product placements in the last season, nearly twice as many as the season before (11,684) (TVSquad). Although the average show sees only around six subtle placements per hour, you could see more than 60 product shots in a heavily branded program such as American Idol. Advertisers have been worried about audience resistance, but because of Idol's success, advertisers see potential, stating,
"This would appear to prove that the placement clutter ceiling is far above current average levels [. …] if the current increase is sustained, we will reach the 12-per-hour level in 2006 and the 60-per-hour level sometime in late 2008" (InsideBrandedEntertainment).
This all, ironically, is in response to a widespread industry assumption that "TV networks are turning to product placements to fight back against ad-skipping technologies like TiVo" (Wired, emphasis added). Viewers realize that television must be funded somewhere, and so they have, for the last 50 years, put up with the direct honesty of the 30-second spot. Most viewers understand that if ads were not watched, television would eventually be forced to cease, and so commercials are begrudged. However, Sex and the City does not seem to mind encouraging a shift to the more subtle marketing schemes by endorsing TiVO. We can conclude from this that the advertising industry is being disingenuous when it says it is merely seeking to thwart commercial skipping and, in actuality, finds the practice beneficial to profits—but must attempt to justify the practice to the public.
We know that outright lying in advertising is illegal. The display of products is illegal in Europe, so moral issues are addressed in advertising. What are the moral standards that people feel comfortable with? Are people concerned by being coerced? According to leading advertisers, many don't mind being coerced as long as they're not told about it. Kahlua Liquor, then, made a grave mistake when it announced in a press release its plans for product branding a new television show. On productplacement.biz, a website which blogs the 'exciting' world of branded advertising (when an entire show is centered around one product or another), Jeff Greenfield relates the following wisdom: "Branded Entertainment RULE #1 — DO NOT alert the public via a press release that you are doing branded entertainment as it ruins the whole concept and ticks off consumers!!!" Instead, they should have announced with the press release that the show inadvertently features the liquor, "'cause it's a cool drink and it's exotic" (productplacement.biz).
Here we see evidence of a rhetorical advertising trick, the use of the word 'cool'. In the book Culture Jam, Kalle Lasn gives reasons why words like these are cultivated and maintained. Lasn feels that the idea of 'cool' creates a self-esteem dependency which instills a need of staying on top in a perceptual social competition, the 'cool.' The path to the continued cool is through product purchasing. At first it was vacuum cleaners and the electric kitchen that would create a social goal, and it has continued onward to the latest gadget, invention being the mother of necessity. The origins of the 'soap opera' actually have everything to do with soap sponsors themselves. Originally performed on radio, soap companies agreed to provide entertainment to housewives in their homes in order to advertise their products. Many women felt obliged to purchase soaps in return for the next drama. By their support of the programs and purchases of the finest new soaps, a clearly delineated social structure was created with the cleaner household being much more 'cool.' Ultimately, proper product purchasing becomes a representation of social superiority, but it also follows that the path to the desired social status is paved and laid out narrowly, and so the elevated status corresponds to a restricted degree of freedom.
Today, we are branded early and often. As children, when we hear the song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game... buy me some peanuts and Crackerjacks...," we don't feel included in society unless we've had that experience. When E.T. has a 'touching' experience with a young boy through the never-seen-before 'Reese's Pieces,' audiences everywhere felt compelled to try the candies to maintain cultural knowledgeability and competence; the product became catapulted into the mass consciousness. In Fox's hit show, "24," (sold on the idea that it was 'commercial-less') Cisco Network trucks were hijacked to enter CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) headquarters, and their routers were used to defend a hacker DOS (denial of service) attack. "Did it do any damage yet?" "No, the Cisco system is self-defending" (Cisco). Additionally, the laptop that the president's aide uses is an Apple, and all of the cars driven are Fords. When we see these heroes, actresses, and people we respect and idolize using products naturally, we aspire to imitate their purchasing decisions to feel included. When it becomes internalized that 'Women love shopping,' that male gadgetry is simply 'Boys and their toys,' and that 'Depressed people eat ice-cream,' we know exactly where to find meaning when we feel empty, lonely, depressed, or un-heroic.
For most of television's history, advertising has gone about the business of 'self-esteem dependency' creation in a subliminal manner, but at least it has been honest and open about product peddling within the 30-second spot. With the advent of excessive product placement, advertising seems to dive beneath another layer of convolution while claiming to be on a higher moral ground. Now that the viewers have decided to bypass their unspoken contract with devices like TiVO, the television world has had an excuse to fight back with subliminal product placement, or product branding, in order to survive. It really allows the new form of advertising to creep in, become the norm, and remain an integrated part of 'cool creation.'
An individual American's relationship with entertainment during the late 30s and 40s was much different than what it is today. In the beginning, people had no expectations of being entertained. Many felt that purchasing products was a reasonable exchange for the enjoyment that their financial support obtained. Since then, we have seen media and entertainment businesses become some of the most powerful and profitable players in the world. AOL/ Time Warner, AT&T, General Electric, Viacom and a few others are incredibly influential forces, and they have gotten there by providing entertainment. Because of this, most television viewers feel an entitlement to watch programs for free, and they might be, because they have made another payment: the bondage they incur by allowing advertisers to control their self-esteem, their desires, and their lives.
Works Cited
Cisco. http://www.cisco.com/now/24/indexSecurity.html
HBO. http://www.hbo.com/city/episode/season6/episode76.shtml
Insidebrandedentertainment. http://www.insidebrandedentertainment.com/
Lasn, Kalle. "Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge--And Why We Must." New York: HarperCollins, 1999.
Product Invasion. http://www.productinvasion.com/
Product Placement. http://www.productplacement.biz/page/2/ October 22nd.
Sex and the City. HBO. Episode 76.
Tivo. http://www.tivo.com/5.6.5.archive.asp TiVo financial reports.
TVSquad. http://www.tvsquad.com/2005/11/10/nbc-pimps-products-the-most/
Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_placement
Wired. http://wired.com/news/business/0,1367,69775,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3
The most compelling aspect of this episode, however, is not the plot but what the plot centers around – the TiVO device itself. Having a storyline revolve around an item is product placement at its finest, but this specific item also has an interesting context. TiVO, and devices like it, have become one of the main justifications for what has been a monumental increase in product plugs on television. 2005 has seen an increase of 84% in product placement from 2004 (Wired). NBC took the boot with 21,286 product placements in the last season, nearly twice as many as the season before (11,684) (TVSquad). Although the average show sees only around six subtle placements per hour, you could see more than 60 product shots in a heavily branded program such as American Idol. Advertisers have been worried about audience resistance, but because of Idol's success, advertisers see potential, stating,
"This would appear to prove that the placement clutter ceiling is far above current average levels [. …] if the current increase is sustained, we will reach the 12-per-hour level in 2006 and the 60-per-hour level sometime in late 2008" (InsideBrandedEntertainment).
This all, ironically, is in response to a widespread industry assumption that "TV networks are turning to product placements to fight back against ad-skipping technologies like TiVo" (Wired, emphasis added). Viewers realize that television must be funded somewhere, and so they have, for the last 50 years, put up with the direct honesty of the 30-second spot. Most viewers understand that if ads were not watched, television would eventually be forced to cease, and so commercials are begrudged. However, Sex and the City does not seem to mind encouraging a shift to the more subtle marketing schemes by endorsing TiVO. We can conclude from this that the advertising industry is being disingenuous when it says it is merely seeking to thwart commercial skipping and, in actuality, finds the practice beneficial to profits—but must attempt to justify the practice to the public.
We know that outright lying in advertising is illegal. The display of products is illegal in Europe, so moral issues are addressed in advertising. What are the moral standards that people feel comfortable with? Are people concerned by being coerced? According to leading advertisers, many don't mind being coerced as long as they're not told about it. Kahlua Liquor, then, made a grave mistake when it announced in a press release its plans for product branding a new television show. On productplacement.biz, a website which blogs the 'exciting' world of branded advertising (when an entire show is centered around one product or another), Jeff Greenfield relates the following wisdom: "Branded Entertainment RULE #1 — DO NOT alert the public via a press release that you are doing branded entertainment as it ruins the whole concept and ticks off consumers!!!" Instead, they should have announced with the press release that the show inadvertently features the liquor, "'cause it's a cool drink and it's exotic" (productplacement.biz).
Here we see evidence of a rhetorical advertising trick, the use of the word 'cool'. In the book Culture Jam, Kalle Lasn gives reasons why words like these are cultivated and maintained. Lasn feels that the idea of 'cool' creates a self-esteem dependency which instills a need of staying on top in a perceptual social competition, the 'cool.' The path to the continued cool is through product purchasing. At first it was vacuum cleaners and the electric kitchen that would create a social goal, and it has continued onward to the latest gadget, invention being the mother of necessity. The origins of the 'soap opera' actually have everything to do with soap sponsors themselves. Originally performed on radio, soap companies agreed to provide entertainment to housewives in their homes in order to advertise their products. Many women felt obliged to purchase soaps in return for the next drama. By their support of the programs and purchases of the finest new soaps, a clearly delineated social structure was created with the cleaner household being much more 'cool.' Ultimately, proper product purchasing becomes a representation of social superiority, but it also follows that the path to the desired social status is paved and laid out narrowly, and so the elevated status corresponds to a restricted degree of freedom.
Today, we are branded early and often. As children, when we hear the song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game... buy me some peanuts and Crackerjacks...," we don't feel included in society unless we've had that experience. When E.T. has a 'touching' experience with a young boy through the never-seen-before 'Reese's Pieces,' audiences everywhere felt compelled to try the candies to maintain cultural knowledgeability and competence; the product became catapulted into the mass consciousness. In Fox's hit show, "24," (sold on the idea that it was 'commercial-less') Cisco Network trucks were hijacked to enter CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) headquarters, and their routers were used to defend a hacker DOS (denial of service) attack. "Did it do any damage yet?" "No, the Cisco system is self-defending" (Cisco). Additionally, the laptop that the president's aide uses is an Apple, and all of the cars driven are Fords. When we see these heroes, actresses, and people we respect and idolize using products naturally, we aspire to imitate their purchasing decisions to feel included. When it becomes internalized that 'Women love shopping,' that male gadgetry is simply 'Boys and their toys,' and that 'Depressed people eat ice-cream,' we know exactly where to find meaning when we feel empty, lonely, depressed, or un-heroic.
For most of television's history, advertising has gone about the business of 'self-esteem dependency' creation in a subliminal manner, but at least it has been honest and open about product peddling within the 30-second spot. With the advent of excessive product placement, advertising seems to dive beneath another layer of convolution while claiming to be on a higher moral ground. Now that the viewers have decided to bypass their unspoken contract with devices like TiVO, the television world has had an excuse to fight back with subliminal product placement, or product branding, in order to survive. It really allows the new form of advertising to creep in, become the norm, and remain an integrated part of 'cool creation.'
An individual American's relationship with entertainment during the late 30s and 40s was much different than what it is today. In the beginning, people had no expectations of being entertained. Many felt that purchasing products was a reasonable exchange for the enjoyment that their financial support obtained. Since then, we have seen media and entertainment businesses become some of the most powerful and profitable players in the world. AOL/ Time Warner, AT&T, General Electric, Viacom and a few others are incredibly influential forces, and they have gotten there by providing entertainment. Because of this, most television viewers feel an entitlement to watch programs for free, and they might be, because they have made another payment: the bondage they incur by allowing advertisers to control their self-esteem, their desires, and their lives.
Works Cited
Cisco. http://www.cisco.com/now/24/indexSecurity.html
HBO. http://www.hbo.com/city/episode/season6/episode76.shtml
Insidebrandedentertainment. http://www.insidebrandedentertainment.com/
Lasn, Kalle. "Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge--And Why We Must." New York: HarperCollins, 1999.
Product Invasion. http://www.productinvasion.com/
Product Placement. http://www.productplacement.biz/page/2/ October 22nd.
Sex and the City. HBO. Episode 76.
Tivo. http://www.tivo.com/5.6.5.archive.asp TiVo financial reports.
TVSquad. http://www.tvsquad.com/2005/11/10/nbc-pimps-products-the-most/
Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_placement
Wired. http://wired.com/news/business/0,1367,69775,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3
posted by Alonzo Riley at
1:20 PM
Post a Comment << Home