Product placement is to be allowed on British TV shows.

[Steel]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8252901.stmProduct placement is to be allowed on British TV shows, in a move due to be announced next week.
Linky

Independent broadcasters will be allowed to take payments for displaying commercial products during shows.

The change is intended to bring in extra funds for commercial broadcasters. Experts believe it could raise up to £100m a year.

There are currently strict rules against product placement and this ban would remain in place on BBC shows.

Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw is expected to announce a three-month consultation on the changes in a speech to the Royal Television Society next week.

An ITV spokesman welcomed the move, which he described as "reforming UK prohibition".

He said: "If the government does decide to permit product placement, it will be warmly welcomed by the commercial broadcasting industry and advertisers alike.

"Reforming the UK prohibition would also be a welcome acknowledgement of the pressures currently faced by an industry in transition. New sources of revenue means better-funded content - which can only be good news for viewers."

The spokesman added that ITV had led the campaign for product placement in the UK, and said it could be an important new revenue stream, as it already is in Europe.

The culture secretary''s predecessor, Andy Burnham, had said in March that "serious concerns" remained about product placement because it could harm editorial independence.

''Trust the consumer''

But the government now believes that placement should be allowed in some circumstances.

A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said the current situation puts the UK at a competitive disadvantage.

It is believed that ministers want to help struggling broadcasters such as ITV, which have been hit hard by the recession.

The change could mean that products will be much more visible in popular series such as Coronation Street and Britain''s Got Talent. At present, the shows are forced to cover up labels to comply with the strict guidelines - or face fines.

On Channel 4''s Big Brother, food and drink products consumed in the house come in packaging where any logos have been carefully obscured.

The ban would stay in place for the BBC and would continue to apply to all children''s programmes across all networks.

The creator of Big Brother, Peter Bazalgette, said product placement was already widespread and that lifting the ban was "hugely overdue".

He said: "My prediction is that it could be worth £100m a year to commercial TV.

"Product placement needs to be done transparently, with credits that make it clear it has taken place.

"But you have to trust the consumer. If it''s overdone or tasteless, viewers will switch off.

"And it''s rife in British television anyway. There''s product placement in movies that go on television and in imported American TV shows and dramas.

"And what about those sports events where sponsors'' logos are worn on shirts? Product placement won''t dramatically change the way we watch TV."

''Advertiser pressure''

Steven Barnett, professor of communications at the University of Westminster, said the viewing public might have trouble distinguishing between what was "integral to the plot" and what had been paid for "as some kind or promotional device".

"I think we have to rely on the integrity of the programme makers which, when money is at stake, can sometimes be compromised," he said.

"I think there are situations in which a programme or an independent company might be a little bit more desperate for the cash where they might go to an advertiser and say, ''Look, we can build in a couple of minutes... with someone you''ll want to be associated with, how much are you prepared to pay for that?''

"That''s the point at which I think we need to be clear about the boundaries between genuine creative independence and advertiser pressure."

 

[Steel]

I *hate* product placements.

I feel it is subliminal advertising.



Maybe she''s born with it...fairy liquid...L''Oreal...get that Friday feeling.....Mr. Kiplings....mild green....maybe it''s maybeline...fairy liquid...exceedingly good cakes...crunchie....you''re worth it...

 

[4ever]

I''m totally fine with product placement, I actually find it kind of amusing. I like to speculate about how much a company paid to put it''s brand in a movie or TV show. Like "Little Nicky", when Nicky practicing "reaslesing the evil" and tunrs Coke into Pepsi - Pretty funny but also probaby a very costly bit of advertising for Coca Cola.

I don''t blame them for making it legal, if the TV broudcasters make more money from advertising, they can afford to spend more to buy expensive over seas shows or increase the budgets for locally made shows which (in theory) = better TV.

TV advertising needs to move in these new directions because advertisers are now awear, many people don''t watch the ads or completly zone out and don''t pay attention to them. In the ad breaks you get up and make a snack, go to the toilet or brouse through a magazine or even Price Scope, people don''t usually watch ads with the same attention they pay to the shows themselves. It won''t be long before advertisers are no longer willing to pay throusands of dollers for a 30 second comercial no one is really watching.

And for most people, product placement isn''t intrusive. Consumers would not respond well to really obvious and intrusive advertising in their favourate shows, when this happens, it''s more likely to anoy the consumer then intise them to buy. As a restult product placement is usually very subtle, a laptop on the table which you can see the brand lable of, sometimes a casual mention of a brand (''Friends'' stands out in my mind as they always asked for a diet coke) or the characters may stay in a particular Hotel when they are away on holiday etc.

I am, however, glad they are not extending this to the advertising of childrens products or during kids shows. I won''t go into a rant about the ethics of advertising at children but I''ve been at the supermarket many times where a young child is having a tantrum or hounding their parents for a particular new product or a particular brand of youghurt that is very heavly advertised at that time and I really think their parents lives are hard enough without their kid also insisting that they drink only X brand of juice because that''s the one Hanna Montana drinks.

I don''t think it''s subliminal advertising, most of the time comsumers are still awear they are being advertised at, as long as the product placement stay subtle and unobtrustive then I see it as a good way for advertisers to get their products out there when people ARE paying attention, and a good way for TV broudcasters to have more money to spend on making good TV for us to enjoy. I think in a few years time we''ll just phase product placement out and not even notice it just the way we do with comercial breaks.

 

[oddoneout]

I''ve seen many product placements in US and Canadian shows (you can literally watch the show and count the product placements...they''re that obvious). Product placements have been in movies too for years. I''m kind of surprised it didn''t exist in the UK. To me they have no effect (well maybe because I hardly watch tv). I think people have to buy into the show/characters for the product placement to work. I think it''s around so much that people may see it but just ignore it. They don''t say "Oh my favourite character drinks Coke all the time...I think I''ll buy some and be just like the character."

 

[Pandora II]

If it''s subtle ie character opens cupboard and tin says Heinz Baked Beans rather than just Baked Beans on the label, then fine. But if it gives products more forceful presence then no thanks.

What I never want to see is what they have on Italian TV, where in the middle of a programme the presenter will walk across the set and start promoting beds/saucepans/hair products etc

 

[4ever]

Date: 9/14/2009 6:19:10 PM
Author: Pandora II
If it''s subtle ie character opens cupboard and tin says Heinz Baked Beans rather than just Baked Beans on the label, then fine. But if it gives products more forceful presence then no thanks.

What I never want to see is what they have on Italian TV, where in the middle of a programme the presenter will walk across the set and start promoting beds/saucepans/hair products etc

Really? Wow, that''s tacky. I would be really pissed off if it was that obtrusive. I havn''t seem any really obtrustive examples of product placement which is why I think it''s fine. I think the key to keeping the audience accepting advertisings precance in their programs is, like you said Pandora II, keeping it subtle and sticking to just having companies pay to have their products included with lables showing etc.