Book Excerpts
Excerpt 3
In NBC’s Meet Mister Mom, a reality show that ran for almost a half season in 2005, the opening montage featured a teenage girl sporting a State Farm Insurance T-shirt (could that be a sponsor?), something a character of her age wouldn’t die wearing. Seconds later the montage pauses on a JC Penney store (could it?) that gazes lovingly into the camera. In its review the New York Post said … “possibly the most boring reality show in history,” and went on to refer to the part where a State Farm agent (agent?) proudly hands a check for $25,000 to a participating family, calling it “most shameful product placement ever.” Boo plus hiss equals yuck
NBC was not silly enough to run any more of this exercise in shoddy product placement and it likely wasn’t cancelled before it was for fear of upsetting Momertisers
Why anyone in 2007 thinks the consumer is stupid enough to buy something forced onto TV episodes proves how stupid some marketers still are. As Nike’s love affair with MTV demonstrated to an industry or two, it is possible to create compelling programming and say something positive about a sponsor. As Goose’s sunny dance provided evidence of, consumers can make subtle connections between show and product if a brand steward does some thinking
Heck, to some an episode is paltry compared with the origination of an entire channel with your products! That’s what Volkswagen-owned automaker Audi did in Britain during late 2005 when it launched the Audi Channel on British Sky Broadcasting today reaching over 20 million British subjects. The programming a la Audi is strictly info-tainment and has content beyond auto obsession: there is golf and polo and celebrity talk. Future plans include interactive features for viewers on how to find dealers (cars), request brochures (cars), set up test drives (cars) and then price a machine (cars)
Some marketers have also become moviemakers so as to demonstrate brand values. Movie director Stacy Peralta’s cult skateboarding film Dog Town and Z-Boys was a backed by skateboard apparel company the Van Doren Rubber Company (Vans). As in the case of Grey Goose and Iconoclasts, the role of Vans in the movie was pretty nonexistent. For Vans in Dog Town and Z-Boys there’s credit at the end and a glimpse in some 70’s footage of shoes being worn by a fairly well known skater. But they leveraged the flick association in online promotions and in store displays
Of course most brands don’t operate in such exciting arenas so opportunities to create something adventurous are fairly limited. A film about window cleaning funded by Windex® might, we guess, appeal only to obsessive compulsives. Although watching skyscraper window cleaners high up on shaky platforms could be sort of fun