From 28 February, branded ingredients and products will be allowed on our TV screens. Programme-makers need the money, but do we need product placement?
On 28 February this year there's going to be a change in OFCOM's rules on product placement on UK TV and radio. While services funded by the licence fee will still do that odd thing of blacking out the brand name on products and ingredients, the commercial channels will be able to clearly feature brands in exchange for cash.
Until now, TV hasn't been able to do this. Programme-makers have to jump through some absurd hoops to avoid featuring products, though it's done so discreetly you may not have noticed. In dramas a canned drink is always held in such a way that the logo is obscured by the actor's hand; products appearing in shot during "reality" shows often have their labels obscured in post-production by patches of blur. In both EastEnders and Coronation Street where the narrative depends on regular sequences in bars, they have gone as far as to invent their own brands. Avid beer nerd bloggers have spotted Thames Bitter, North Export, Fordham's Ale, Stolenberg 1940, Holmes Lager, Hopborg, Chambers Best Bitter and Devlins on the pumps at the Queen Vic along with bottled Jenkins or Skoe.
In the past there have been some murky work-arounds to avoid the restrictions, particularly on cookery shows. We've all seen occasions where a celebrity cook has recommended an ingredient of which a supermarket has conveniently laid in huge stocks. In the days after the show airs, PRs assiduously place stories of "round the block queues" forming and hint darkly at shortages. It's been product placement in everything but name and perhaps now it's going to be above board.
Product placement has been a live topic amongst advertisers and broadcasters for a while. Put simply, old-fashioned ads in breaks during programming are losing their power. Audiences have plummeted since the glory days of ITV but they've also become, if not actually smarter, then at least more savvy. A man in a white coat talking about the health benefits of cereal no longer has the same power to affect purchasing decisions.
On the face of it, this shouldn't cause audiences much grief. Most of us would prefer to see less of the wall-to-wall shilling of hire-purchase sofas and car insurance, but there's a downside to the drop in ad revenues. TV companies rely on that money to make programmes and, with ad revenue in freefall quality is dropping off catastrophically.
Product placement is a possible answer and one the movie industry embraced with alacrity. Certainly anyone who's seen any of the recent products of the Bond franchise, for example, will have noticed what passes as narrative disappearing amongst a flashing litany of branded bling. The shots of Daniel Craig's well-packed trunks were never as manipulatively titillating as the lingering cinematic ogling of his watch or car.
Product placement will be allowed in dramas and documentaries, soaps, entertainment and sports shows - but will be banned in children's, news, UK-produced current affairs, consumer affairs and religious programmes. UK legislation already bans product placement for tobacco, alcohol, gambling, foods or drinks that are high in fat, salt or sugar, medicines and formula baby milk.
According to OFCOM, the broadcaster will have to broadcast a logo for three seconds at the start and end of programmes which have been paid to feature products. We'll be able to see clearly what's going on and the broadcasters will be able to rake in just a little more cash. Here's hoping they might spend a tiny bit of it on improving programmes.
It seems likely that we consumers of food TV will be among the first to see product placement in action, but how do you feel about it? Will the mention of individual branded products make you less trusting of the chef, the programme or the medium in general? If you were exchanging a recipe with a friend, wouldn't you recommend brands where appropriate?
(This piece was brought to you by a MacBook, BT OpenZone and a flat white at my favourite independent coffee shop. Unfortunately, I paid for all of it.)
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/wordofmouth/2011/feb/16/product-placement-food-and-drink
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