Product Placement

It's been announced this week that TV regulatory body OFCOM has finalised its plans to allow the use of product placement in UK broadcasting. The rules are pretty strict though, and the following are the most prominent points:

• Broadcasters will have to 'alert' viewers to the use of product placement within any segment of a television show
  
• Tobacco, alcohol, gambling products / services, baby milk, and products with high sugar or fat content are banned from being featured (there are more prohibited products / services, but it's a long list!)
  
• Products cannot be given undue prominence, and must be editorially justified.
  
• Only four 'types' of broadcast can use product placement - films, entertainment shows, dramas, and sports shows.
  
• Broadcasters will be able to use product placement from February 28th onwards

So, without going into finite detail about every possible minutiae of the code, it's pretty easy for broadcasters to fall foul of the guidelines, but I have a feeling that many will embrace the changes with open arms, after all the reward is extra advertising revenue, which many channels (especially the BBC, who face cutbacks after not being allowed to raise the cost of the licence fee, as well as a post-Big Brother Channel 4) will gratefully receive.

I've always been somewhat interested in product placement, because of the close links to advertising and PR in terms of generating interest in a product or service. Its closer linked to PR because the targeted audience is almost oblivious to what products are being broadcast to them, instead focusing on the characters and action on the screen, whereas advertising is often seen in a negative regard - especially commercial breaks, where people stereotypically nip to the toilet, or stick the kettle on!

Product placement is mainly something associated with American television shows (next time you sit down and watch your favourite american cop drama see if you can spot logos or any sort of branding in the back of shot). The queen of product placement is arguably pop star Lady Gaga, who has been known to cleverly incorporate several products and services into the narrative of a music video, in order to generate increased awareness for the companies she associates herself with.

Watch the video for her 2010 hit single 'Telephone', which has nearly 35 million YouTube views below.



The PR challenge is now to raise awareness of the benefits of product placement to the companies they represent, and to promote the use of their products in the shows. In America product placement takes up around 5 percent of all money spent on advertising, but I suspect that once broadcasters and viewers become used to the idea, the figure will increase in the UK, purely because it will become the method of advertising de rigueur. The test will be if randomly sticking products into television shows can be a long-term money making success.

In a less serious note, heres a few product placement scenarios you WONT be watching soon:

• Eastenders' Phil Mitchell waving his GHD hair straighteners round in the Queen Vic
  
• X Factor contestant Mary Byrne (Tesco Mary) holding a Sainsburys carrier bag on stage
  
• Jeremy Kyle swigging from a 2 litre bottle of White Lightning
  
• An episode of Countdown using Birdseye's Alphabites
  
• Gary Lineker scoffing a packet of Walkers crisps during Match of the Day
  

If you have any more ideas of this kind, stick them in a comment below. Depending on the response, there might be some sort of "prize" for the best / most entertaining suggestion (see below).

Make sure you let me know who you are in the comments, so either sign up using a Google account (easy) or write your name in with the anonymous comment!

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Do you think product placement is the future of television advertising? Why?
How would you feel if your favourite TV show suddenly was full of product placement?

Let me know

Paul