Tachion

There is a trend towrds advertising appearing directly within a product itself.
For example your DVD advertises other movies and sometimes products. Products appear in movies and TV shows.

Also video games are beginning to have products directly within the game.

Is it OK to have fewer place to go where you don't get a 'message'?

Personally I don't mind it now but I think it has potential to get really carried away, such as hearing a short ad whenever you pick up you phone.

Should we be concerned?

Gilda

As I sit here at my Alienware computer, typing on a custom half-querty keyboard, and viewing the contents on a Samsung flat panel monitor, wearing an LEI miniskirt and Hanes Her Way pocket t-shirt with no shoes, my Denon AVR 5805 reciever playing Mozart through Axiom Epic 80 speakers, sipping a diet Pepsi, I can't help but think that product placement is a bad thing, and can surely only lead us down the path of overly invasive advertising. I'm dead set against it.

Gilda

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Marvelous Marv

Well, I canceled my AOL because I got sick of seeing a video ad appear before every news video of theirs that I tried to watch.

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skier

I don't like it at all.

I've stopped watching movies in the theatre because of it. I paid 15$ to watch a movie, not be advertised to. The only movie I've seen in the past three years in the brand name theatres is harry potter.

I get angry when I can't skip over an advertising section in a DVD and usually return it. It's a small victory, but the only thing I can do is vote with my buying power.

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Siege

Hehehe

Doesn't really matter to me. During movies, I actually want to see what's coming out soon. As for television, I usually zone out when it's advertising time anyway.

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xepherys

It depends... as for first run movies (i.e.- at the theatre) I LOVE previews. *shrug* On DVDs it's alittle less interesting, but most DVD players will allow them to be skipped.

In video games I think it's great if it adds to the realism (Coke or MS ads on billboards in a racing game or something). If it's just blatent and adds nothing to the content, then no, it's more irritating than not.

snowy

I actually enjoy product placement...I find it fun to note blatant product placement and to see who's paid for advertising in that manner (the reality TV shows seem to have the most obnoxious product placement). The fact is, with TiVo we're going to see more of this kind of advertising since people can just skip over the commercials, especially on network television. They have to find some way to pay their production costs, after all.

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fresnelly

There was a Canadian sitcom on back in the 70's, called King of Kensington, which didn't use any real products on set. As a result, scenes set in the kitchen or grocery store, were stocked with made-up cereals, canned goods, beverage and so on. You can still watch the show in syndication, and the fake products in the background look pretty ridiculous.

As long as the placements don't pull you out of the story, I'm fine with them. A realistic setting needs real products, and as long as they don't pull focus, it's no big deal. In fact, a clumsily masked product is as equally jarring as a clumsy placed one. Just imagine a group of actors sitting around a bar table all holding their beers awkwardly so you're unable make out the lable.

As Snowy said, glaring placement is obnoxious, so it's in the advertiser's interest to be subtle. For example, the product placement in The Apprentice is so overbearing that it's laughable. It's like watching your parents dance to hip hop.

For an more insidious example of subliminal placement, see Josie and the Pussycats. (OK, don't see that movie, just say that you did) Much fun is made at the expense of corporate sponsors and the big advertisers in the movie, but they still get plenty of screen time for their logos. In cases like this, you make fun of it at first, but when the novelty wears off and starts to wear you down, their messages start seeping into your brain.

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JumpinJesus

I'm with snowy and fresnelly on this. I remember watching movies as a child and thinking, "Why don't they just drink Coke? Why do they have those stupid made-up brands?" If it's done in a subtle, non-overt manner I don't mind it at all. When it's done in a blatant overbearing fashion, though, then I tend to find it laughable.

I also enjoy the previews before movies in the theatres. I don't like the advertisements since I'm already paying to watch the film.

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ziadel

Doesnt bother me that much, unless its something on a DVD that I cant skip over, then that burns me.

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Leto

yes, but previews are fun. They have always been (along with the national anthem) a part of the movie experience.

The product adverstising, however, is not palatable. I leave the theatre until they are over.

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martinguerre

i put up with it in gmail...but only because gmail changes my life by not losing my email.

DVD previews you can't skip are the worst thing on earth. i paid for the damn movie...don't lecture me with a lame ass PSA that can't be fastforworded. it's almost enough to make me go pirate movies.

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Rodney

I don't mind product placement in an entertainment as long as it's not obvious or blatant. Then it distracts from the story. If I'm thinking, "Hey Chevrolet paid for exposure here," then they've blown it.

I don't mind coming attractions in the theaters, but I do mind actual ads. The Regal chain recently bought our big theater downtown, and if you come early, before the coming attractions, they play a continuous stream of ads and promotional films with the lights half dimmed. Guess who doesn't show up early anymore. This is just another reason that theater admissions are dropping. You don't want to pay nine bucks to see an ad.

It's true that, these days, any sort of spare bandwidth is being sold for commercial space. You know the rubber/plastic bars that you use at the supermarket checkout counter to separate your groceries from the next guy's? At one chain around here, they've actually put advertisements on all four sides of them. And there are little TV monitors at each checkout station endlessly playing ads to the people waiting helplessly in line. That's way over the line, as far as I'm concerned. Because if you want to get your groceries, you have to stand next to this mini-tv that's shouting ads at you.

Suave

As long as they are kept inconspicuous, I don't mind. If I'm watching a film and the spy is running from a small army, looks for a car on the street and says "Ah! A 2006 KIA Sorento; it will provide me with the speed necessary to outrun these fiends, yet give me a ride so comfortable I will feel like I'm floating" then I will get a bit pissed off (for an example, see "I Robot"). If it's just Coke getting their name put on the cans in the movie, I'm not going to cry about it.

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Xazy

It is not the previews I mind, it is the commrecials at the movies.

Even for DVDs I have noticed some of that, and it is getting to piss me off. MPAA want to know why people illegally copy it, well you piss off your customers is 1 good reason.

guthmund

I don't care.

It can be incredibly annoying and certainly distracting, but Jack Bauer (no matter how cool he is) busting terrorist heads in a Ford isn't going to persuade me all that much to buy a Ford.

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BigBen

Wait, don't you guys know that the DVD commercials and previews are the time in which you get your movie snack (9 times out of 10 popcorn) made and your drink poured?

Jeez, do I got to show you how to do everything?

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BigBen

And, yes, I think it is pretty pathetic when the contestants on Survivor fawn over the product placements during reward and immunity challenges.

"OOOooohh, Doritoes!! I loooooove Doritoes!!! I would kill a fucking cameraman for just one chip right now..."

And the Mountain Dew stuff? Brutal. I didn't mind the Car reward at the end. It was such a big reward that the embedded advertising got a pass on that one. Weird, huh?

I would love to see a contestant say "I hate Mountain Dew. I would rather drink my own urine, thank you." The producers edit it, but maybe there is an outtake somewhere...

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Toaster126

That may have been the funniest thing I've ever seen on TFP. Marry me?

Also, those DVD's with the options disabled during the commericals make me sooooo angry... those who developed that paticular form of advertising will be the first against the wall.

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barenakedladies

Im totally against it.

this message sponsored by Pepsi... the choice of a new generation

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Grasshopper Green

I hate advertising you can't get away from. Commercials? I can change the channel. A Coke can in a show? No big deal. Ads at the beginning of a movie that I already paid a ridiculous amount for? Pisses me off. The commercials that you can't skip through on DVD's piss me off too. The thing I really hate is commercials in the muzak at grocery stores, etc. At work there is a commercial after every song that plays. I will never buy the products advertised on the muzak because they piss me off so much. I never click on the advertisments on webpages for the same reason. They flash in my face the entire time I'm browsing...why would I want a product that is annoying the crap out of me?

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Gilda

Yeah, commercials are the main reason I got XM satellite radio in my new Acura RL. With 150 digital channels of commercial free music, there's always something good on. I'm so happy with it, I got it for my home stereo as well!

Ok, I'll stop now.

Forced ads and previews on DVD's piss me off no end, but those aren't really embedded. Product placement doesn't bother me in the least if it's done organically. It ads realism to see characters consuming a Pepsi rather than a generic red Cola. The more blatant ones, like Taco Bell in Demolition Man are amazingly annoying, though.

Gilda

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mrklixx

You see, it all depends on what you allow yourself to absorb. For instance, the only thing I got out of Gilda's post is that she didn't say she was wearing underwear.

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Willravel

After watching 'The Island', I know it can get out of control. As long as it's in moderation, it's okay with me. If it gets out of control, I boycott.

Gilda

Apricot-colored Victoria's Secret no-show low rise bikinis. No bra.

Gilda

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Tachion

Hey I think you just embedded advertising in this forum - again!

Xazy

Yes but for some reason this time I did not mind.

rat

I think a much scarier form of advertisement to think about are the ones from the book/movie Minority Report, in which adaptive electronics are used to advertise to specific individuals as they pass by. Just how much information about a person would be required to adequately advertise in such a fashion? How far would retail and service industries have to go to get said information? It boggles the mind.

Embedded advertising is only effective if done in a fashion that the product is identified as "normal" to the environment in which it is embedded. By far the most effective use of this in movies is done with cars. Whether it be Bond movies, X2 (the second Xmen movie), the Bourne Supremacy, or others, there are high profile cars in almost every major action/adventure movie, and their names are never mentioned but you know exactly which car that character is driving. The blatant embedded advertisements are only effective at drawing your eye away from the effective uses of embedding, which will either enhance it for a complementary product, or reduce its effectiveness if its a competing product/company.

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Sgoilear

Pretty far I think. Nothing is sacred when it comes to making a buck. I'm not a fan at all of the 15 minutes of ads that play everytime I go see a movie. It actually annoys me enough that I've only been to see two movies in the last six months and that number will continue to fall. As was mentioned before the trend of forcing me to watch advertisements has actually begun to alienate me from buying a DVD or deciding to catch a movie.

Sadly enough advertising is starting to get more and more invasive already. I'm sure most people here have heard of the pregnant mother who sold her stomach as advertising space or the man who got a casino tattoo in the center of his forehead. It's a disturbing trend.

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jwoody

Until recently product placement was completely illegal throughout Europe, now it's partially illegal (I don't know the details). I think you'd be surprised at how much product placement goes on in American entertainment.

Before an American show is played here, somebody has to go through it and blur all the logos. For example: I saw a few seconds of X_Factor a couple of days ago and noticed the judges were all drinking water out beakers with the Coca Cola brand facing directly towards the camera. There was a logo on someone's shirt which was blurred out. Quite often the badges on cars are blurred... oh, yeah, and Apple computers.

Apple must spend a small fortune on having their logo somewhere in the shot. It's all over the place, in all kinds of programmes.

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Catdaddy33

It's always bugged me, but I'm not going to stop watching TV shows or renting DVDs because of it. I did get fed up with local radio a couple years ago and picked up XM, just for commercial-free music (and I got tired of hearing the same songs over and over--even on the classic rock station).

Some shows, like Survivor, I get a kick out of product placement, like when someone pays 100 for a bag of Doritos. Paying 10 bucks to see a movie only to be fed commercials before the lights goes down and during the previews annoys me, but once again I won't stop going to the movies.

I keep getting amazed as to the lengths they are going, I think it was the People's Choice awards that had "Chap Stick's Viewers Best Kiss Award" type crap, that's a new low. I got pissed when they changed all the bowl games to sponsorship, but award shows???