New 'Stealth' TV Ads Assailed
New technology may change the way TV does business.
It's called virtual product placement and,
The value of product placement was drummed home in 1982, when the loveable space creature "ET" helped put Reese's Pieces on the map.
But now, says Bowers, the time-honored advertising tradition of putting brand-name products into scenes in movies or TV shows is being facilitated by hi-tech, bringing it to a new level.
It enables networks and producers to place products into TV scenes after those scenes are shot. The products aren't even there when filming takes place. They're added digitally.
That not only makes product placement easier, it affords those networks and producers multiple opportunities to sell that coveted space, from first-runs to reruns to DVDs of the shows. They can even swap out one brand for another at the different level.
It also enables them to reach viewers who zip past traditional commercials when watching shows on DVRs.
The increased use of product placement has consumer watchdogs up in arms. They don't like the notion that product placement can quietly send messages to viewers who don't even realize sellers are trying to get to them.
Bowers showed scenes from several shows as they were first shot, without products in them, then as they appeared after products were digitally inserted later. She called it a case of "Now you don't see it, now you do."
"Call it product placement with a twist," she suggests, "putting a product in after the show's been shot."
"We'll take a completed program," explains David Brenner, the founder of Marathon Ventures, "identify places where we can put a product, and then digitally insert it."
Brenner's company is a pioneer in the field of virtual product placement.
"Basically what happens is, we screen every frame of every episode we receive, and what we look for in those frames is places that are going to be contextually relevant for a wide variety of products," Brenner says.
Pointing to a scene from the show "Yes, Dear," Brenner says, "If you look at all the products on the table … it would be impossible to tell which is real and which has been digitally inserted, and that's the whole idea."
Advertisers are already spending billions of dollars on product placement, Bowers points out, and this technology is giving them flexibility unheard of in the past: "Say a scene unfolded in a kitchen, you can add a food product, or in the bathroom, why not a can of shaving cream?"
Techies are working on trying to digitally place even bigger ticket items, such as refrigerators and cars.
As she spoke, those types of products suddenly popped up on what was the empty table in front of her.
"Flexibility is definitely key," observes media manager Elizabeth Herbst-Brady. "I don't have to know three to four months in advance that I want to do something. I can do it much more in real time, so I can take advantage and give my client more flexibility. … It's really a way of fully taking advantage of product placement opportunities, which is something that clients continue to want to use."
Networks and producers can now sell the very same space to multiple sponsors, says Brenner: "One product (could be inserted) in for the first run on network. Every show is rerun, so now you can put a second product in. When the show goes into syndication, you could now put an additional product in, or a different product in for syndication, and if the show goes into a box set on DVD, you can now offer another opportunity for somebody to be in the DVD box set."
But the thought of product placement becoming easier, and potentially more pervasive, has some critics howling.
"People, when they see an ad that's clearly an ad, they understand that there's persuasive intent by a corporation that's trying to propagandize to them, and so they're on their guard," says Gary Ruskin of the group Commercial Alert. "But, where there's product placement, people aren't on their guard. And that's exactly why the advertising industry likes product placement so much. It's deceptive advertising, it's dishonest advertising, it sneaks by our critical faculties and plants its messages in our brains when we are paying less attention."
For advertisers, Bowers says, that's exactly the point: to send you a message without your even knowing it, using a product that's not really there, in a sort of "stealth ad." But product placement works, so expect it to be around, even virtually, for a long time.