We Don't Want Shaun White to look like a Formula-1 Car

The Olympics are here and despite any commentary to the contrary- all is not lost with the world's most historic sporting event. The organizers have taken a different route from normal media displays and have chosen not to allow a ferocious amount of product placement in their events.

Say what you will about the olympics- and we won't delve into the debate about the low ratings- but one thing you will notice while watching the men's halfpipe is that Shaun White, despite all his sponsorship duties, does not appear to be a walking billboard for any company. And chances are it's because olympic organizers have strict rules as to the amount of advertising allowed on the athletes clothing. The Austrian Ski Team actually had to tape over the Spyder logo which was prominently and illegally displayed on their outfits.

Under Olympic committee rules:
"Sponsor logos are allowed, but only in certain places; Non-sponsors are out, no matter where;
Venues must be kept free of advertising."
Coca-Cola is one of the largest sponsors of the Olympic Games, and the bottles are being ordered out of camera view point during filming.

Product sponsorship is also restricted in non camera areas. In the press box, dell computers logos are covered. Samsung cannot display the logos in their own VIP lounge.

The director of brand protection, Cecilia Gandini, patrols the olympic venues regularly to fish out illegal displays.

The Olympics are a unifying time for the world. A majority of countries, even Switzerland, let down their guard and compete against eachother for the sake of winning a medal for themselves and their country. The history that supports these games is phenomenal and I applaud anyone who is working tirelessly for the sanctity of the games.

Jack Bauer races against the clock- trying to save the president on Fox's "24" is a full time job. Good thing he has a fully charged Sprint Treo 650 to take clear images of the terrorists and email them back to the Treasury Department for analysis.
It's also probably a good thing he has a gassed up Ford truck to drive back to headquarters as well.

Welcome to the World of Product Placement.
According to this article in the Kansas City Star, corporations are paying top dollar- upwards of $150,000 for usage of their product by a main character. To create scenes revolved around these brands, into the millions.
And car companies are not unique. Ruthie Camden of 7th Heaven collected Campbells soup can labels for charity. Sprint Mobil Sidekicks are recurring characters on the O.C and Veronica Mars and perhaps the most obvious is the good samaritan work of Sears on Extreme Home Makeover, donating appliances and furniture, delivered in a Sears truck, none the less.
Product Placement can happen in many forms. From the Coca-cola cups on the judges table in American Idol to full blown product sponsorship of American Dreams last year- product placement is growing and improving. It's also becomming more blatant. With characters spewing attribute of the product as part of dialogue, television is becoming more comparable to commercials each day.
Many executives think product placement is a savior to the death of the 30 second commercial. But television shows used to be a reprieve from commercialization. With product placement, television will be one giant ad for wal-mart.
And that is not a very interesting plotline.

HEADLINE: Audience Research Class Brings Interesting Discussion

"TiVo is sweeping the nation"
"People don't watch commercials anymore"
"The world is coming to an end!"

These are only a few of the statements coming from ad executives offices in the past few years in relation to the "new" practice of commercial skipping.
Unfortunately, commercial skipping is nothing new, at least in the small scale. Working moms have been taping soap operas for evening view since the first video recording devices. The unique idea in all this chatter is the TiVo. Imagine, a televison that you can pre-program to record your favorite shows. The wonderfulness in all this recording, is the ability to cleanly skip commercials to get your full 47 minutes of television. And 47 minutes only.
Listening to both the praises and concerns over the use of TiVo has this blogger convinced. At 10% of homes using TiVo, there is no large-scale encrochment on the use of television advertising.

Even as often as Jaffe says it, the 30 second commercial is not dead. Almost 90% of America are watching prime time shows, and continue to do so even with their 13 minutes of commercial time.

Some say that we should return to a time of product sponsorship, an extreme form of product placement that, though it is being used increasingly often, is still relegated to a "from time to time" status. There is a strong push in the advertising community, that product placement and product sponsorship of television shows is the only alternative in this post-nuclear world of TiVos.

In-Class Trial

Just a Trial- Hope you liked my insight into the wide world of in class blogger training.

:)
Lhath