As TV shows start leaking on the new media, particularly the Internet and Tivo, networks are trying to invent how they pay for this business they call show. And in the spirit of going green, they are recycling old ideas.
The New York Times is reporting that at NBC-Universal's revamped upfront presentation, they are returning to the old school system of asking advertising to sponsor whole shows.
The article reports that the goal is to make advertisers into long-term partners rather than just selling them 30-second commercials. The first experiment this summer will be a pair of two-hour TV movies to be broadcast under the banner of the company -- "Liberty Mutual Presents," for example. The movie plots are designed to complement a campaign for Liberty Mutual. The company will help develop the scripts and shape the direction of the movie.
"The Starter Wife" on USA - also an NBC-Universal property - did a similar thing with Pond's products. It was "presented by" the company and during the commercial breaks, there were vignettes about real-life women who are "starting over" and scenes in which the main characters used Pond's products to some wonderful end. In exchange for financing, Pond's was allowed to put its marketing agents in the room with "The Starter Wife"'s writers during the scripting process. Doug Scot, executive director of branded content and entertainment for Ogilvy North America told Slate.com that Pond's money bought it 1) a hand in shaping the story and character arcs; 2) some standard product placement; and 3) a few key "signature moments" in which an on-screen interaction with the Pond's brand triggers a thought or motivation in a character.
I watched the first three hours of "The Starter Wife" and it wasn't that good, but the Pond's interference certainly made it worse (some very ham handed lines about the goodness of Pond's Age DefEYE). As a creative person, the idea of a marketing and advertising exec breathing over my shoulder -- excoriating the provocative, the challenging, the plots that push the boundaries and maybe even offend someone -- rankles. Maybe the miniseries would have been just the same without marketing execs. But we'll never know.
There could be positive results. As someone who has participated in numerous fan campaigns (Roswell, Farscape, Moonlight), people always try to contact "the advertisers." When your show is in trouble, it's much easier to prove to one big advertiser that you bought a car, a computer, a deodorant thanks to those ads. It may make TV lucrative again and give shows without huge audiences -- just young and/or rich ones -- a shot.
Unfortunately, I don't think this small good outweighs the bad. It's one thing to sponsor a show. It's another to corrupt the creative process with marketing matter as the highest concern. Product placement is bad enough.
There's a reason stories in the newspaper are clearly differentiated from the ads and, in most reputable newspapers, advertisers can't effect editorial content. There needs to be a line between content and support. Fine, advertisers want to support a show and plaster its banner all over, go ahead. Want to do some product placement? Great. But when you invite advertisers with their very specific agenda into the writing room where the only goal should be good quality, you are asking for shows to suck.
Advertising, increasingly elaborate, researched, targeted and insidious, will continue its relentless encroachment into every part of our lives. Watching the quality of shows, dialogue and characters decline with the meddling fingers of marketers won't make anyone want to buy anything.
- Mariah
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