A New Arena for Product Placement: TV News Programs

(MoneyWatch)  Via PSFK, a story in the Las Vegas Sun shows how one television station is picking up some extra revenue: product placement during the morning news. Specifically, in front of the newscasters now sits tall cups of McDonalds' new iced coffee, in reality seven-pound plastic models designed to stay looking frosty and refreshing (the iced coffee, not the newscasters). The new director of the station in question, Fox affilliate KVVU, says its not that bad:

Fox is starting its day with a "nontraditional revenue source," KVVU news director Adam P. Bradshaw says.

The station and McDonald's won't disclose how much the fast food empire paid for the product placement. But lest there be any concerns about mixing fact (the morning news) with fiction (fake coffee), he points out that the cups are put out only after 7 a.m., when the hard news gives way to light lifestyle news.

The story notes that stations in Seattle, Chicago, and New York are doing the same thing. As tradtional ads get less effective, thanks to DVRs and shrinking attention spans, product placement is continuining to take off. Entertainment Weekly conducted a poll which found that three-fourths of television watchers would rather see product placement than a commercial. At the same time, the FCC has made some moves that it may begin to reconsider its stance on product placement, and require more prominent diclosure about the relationship between television shows and advertisers. But maybe the best sign that product placement is truly taking off is that Nielsen has now started tracking product placement as part of its television metrics.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have the strangest hankering for a smooth, refreshing iced coffee.

Update: My colleague Dan Mitchell tosses in his own two cents over at the BNET Industries Food blog, making the good point that this may backfire for McDonalds.

A more interesting question is, what is McDonald's really getting out of this? It probably isn't costing them much, but given all the negative publicity, is it really worth it to associate your brand with bubbleheaded morning show anchors?