Product Placement 2.0
Phil Rosenthal, the creator of CBS sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," delivered some alarming statistics about advertisers' impact on television at a House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet hearing on Thursday. The old days of product placement are long gone, he said.
Product integration -- not only incorporating products into a scene, but making them part of the story line -- is the new strategy, Rosenthal said on behalf of the Writers Guild of America West and the Screen Actors Guild. In fact, product integration occurred more than 4,000 times on network primetime television in 2006, he said.
On NBC's "The Office," a character spent an episode working at a Staples office supply store. On ABC's "Desperate Housewives," characters discussed the "cool" features of a Nissan Xterra. "American Idol" contestants star in Ford ads every week, which are presented on the show and the judges "can't say anything about it because their mouths are full of Coca-Cola," he said.
"This is a level of corporate pressure that impinges on free expression over the airwaves," Rosenthal said. Writers' creative rights are impacted by this trend as are the actors, who are subjected to "forced endorsement," he added.
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