Product Placement. Or, How it’s Okay to See an Ad for The Zookeeper in Your Episode of Big Bang

I’ve been reading in articles and hearing in podcasts people denigrating the rise of product-placement in television shows. There are movie advertisements in sit-coms, car and phone placement in procedural dramas and cleaning products in comedies all of which, presumably detract from the show. I’ve even read that ad firms are adding things like flat screen televisions in the background of a scene to promote a product. What is this world coming to?! Ads! The ads are everywhere!

Big deal.

Okay, so I understand that some people are going to be taken out of the experience of their television show because they can’t look past the fact that a show that was recorded back in 2005 now shows ads for the new Transformers film in the background. But, honestly, who does it hurt? As far as I’m concerned this is far less obtrusive than the tickers on the bottom of the screen or the show-interrupting commercials in the middle of an episode. And, if it gets studios more money when offering streaming films or shows by keeping things relevant, big deal. Good on them for monetizing.

But beyond the fact that some people might not like product placement, it is a direct response to how people around the world now watch television. That’s right, I’m talking about the TiVo revolution. Now consumers can watch what they want, when they want. That 2 to 5 PM golden time for breakfast cereals, toys and fast food? No longer relevant when that kid can watch his power rangers whenever he damn well pleases. Sexy singles only running late at night while re-runs of She Spies is on? Nope, now we can watch that filth at 10 AM. Time-shifting has changed the paradigm of ad time placement.

And, most importantly, there’s the fact that people can now skip through the ads. This is the crux of the whole thing. Television channels can no longer guarantee that ads they are being paid for will make their way to consumers’ eye-sockets. Not when even a six year old knows how to blee-bloop, blee-bloop, blee-bloop their way through a commercial. So, these business people have to find a different way to get ads to consumers. And they have found a way to do it where you can’t look away: in the same show you’re watching.

So, yes, while I understand that sometimes its annoying and heavy-handed. Big deal. I’d much rather that than see half the screen of a show being played filled with a new McDonald’s offering.

Full disclosure: I haven’t watched honest to goodness television since Christmas. And even then the experience was painful. How do people watch live television anymore?!

IC