TV screen writers worried they will be left behind by product placement advertising on Tuesday resorted to satirizing their own worst enemies--Donald Trump and Martha Stewart.
Four faux Donalds and a Martha offered body parts as billboard space in a silly street theater stunt calling attention to a trend they see as serious.
In the rapidly evolving world of product placement advertising--or branded entertainment--advertisers weave their products into a show's storyline.
Screen writers say it is turning favorite shows into infomercials, and the trend is especially pronounced on reality shows like The Apprentice, hosted by Trump and Stewart.
While high-powered advertisers and marketers pondered their future in an Advertising Age debate in New York, the Writers Guild of America, west, Inc. protested outside, looking for a place in the discussion.
"How far will they go? Should we start expecting advertising executives in the writing room?" Writers Guild member Greg Flynn said.
Some complained they have been asked to perform the absurd.
R. Ryan Stradal, a writer for the Outback Jack show in which urban women survive in the Australian outback, recalled an episode shot beneath a waterfall in which the women suddenly encountered the latest skin cream to help them shave their legs.
"The whole waterfall experience was forced into becoming a spa experience. It was wildly problematic to work into the narrative," Stradal said.
Advertisers in the panel discussion were also concerned about the uncertainties ahead.
They see shrinking revenue with the demise of the traditional 30-second advertising spot as consumers fast-forward with devices such as TiVo, and a chaotic market in which there are no established industry practices.
"The model is imploding. Why don't we start working on a transition?" said Jeff Bell, vice president of Chrysler and Jeep Chrysler Group, a unit of DaimlerChrysler AG.
They are also worried about alienating viewers by making "branded entertainment" too obvious. One member of the panel lamented that Trump killed the effectiveness of a sponsor by openly thanking the company on the air.
"We used to have standards and practices. Now we don't have standards, just peculiar practices," said Irwin Gotlieb, the chief executive of GroupM, a leading media group.
Members of the panel agreed that the old model of buying advertising segments on the major networks was outdated, replaced by one in which consumers jump from video games to the Internet to interactive programming on TV.
"It's all about screens and digital space," said Brent Dewar, vice president for marketing and advertising for General Motors Corp. in North America. "I want to follow my customer. The advantage today is that we can do it."
Who cares, if it weren't for them high cost shows wouldn't exist as total tv viewers are dwindling and people never watch the commericals anyways (I switch to a diff show during commerical, while Nielson believes that most people will actually sit through to watch the 3 minute commercial breaks...)
Did you know at Burger King you can get free refills? <br />
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Another good Hicks quote was something like, "If you're in commercials, you are forever off the artistic roll call."
i would be all for it if product replacement entirely replaced traditional advertising coz shows would be 10 %50 longer, and the networks wouldn't care about us downloading them.<br />
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Also, most shows *** anyway.
I am very very anti product placement. HOWEVER, product placement CAN be used in a non deceptive manner; for instance, it would bother me A LOT less if a show would EXPLICITLY STATE at the beginning that product placement would be used.
ads s**k. i hate them. as bill hicks said: "if you're in marketing, just kill yourself right now."