Name-brand products make regular appearances on television shows, where they are typically written into a drama, comedy or reality program. “American Idol” viewers, for example, have come to expect to see a Coke cup in front of a judge on the show, Simon Cowell, as he berates contestants.
In recent weeks, anchors on the Fox affiliate in Las Vegas, KVVU, sit with cups of McDonald’s iced coffee on their desks during the news-and-lifestyle portion of their morning show. The anchors rarely touch the cups.
Executives at the station, one of 12 owned by the media company Meredith, say the six-month promotion is meant to shore up advertising revenue and, as they told the news staff, will not influence content.
The arrangement does raise questions about potential conflicts between the intended message and news content. The ad agency that arranged the promotion said the coffee cups would most likely be whisked away if KVVU chooses to report a negative story about McDonald’s.
Neither the agency nor KVVU would reveal the price of the six-month deal.
The logical outcome of nutball economics. Everything is reduced to its commercial value.
This is new? Nope. If you have been watching MSNBC’s Morning Joe for the last 6+ months, everyone on the dais has some type of Starbucks drink in front of them.
If this would cut down on the number of full 30 sec. commercials, it would be good… but it probably won’t.
I would make it a point to look at whatever the talking heads were pimping, and then AVOID BUYING IT AT ALL COSTS.
I would be very interesting so see if they swap out the ice as the show progresses to keep the beverage looking its best.
Anyone remember the film “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks. I made the mistake of renting that. I could not believe how obtrusive and obvious the product placement was. Whenever Tom would sit down, there was a Starbucks right behind him in the shot. They should have paid me to watch that flix!
“The logical outcome of nutball economics. Everything is reduced to its commercial value.”
No, just the final demise of the nutball idea that idealism pays the bills.
Hey==McDonald’s sells iced coffee? Finally, news from Fox that I can actually use.
That guy in the pic is way too perky.
“The logical outcome of nutball economics. Everything is reduced to its commercial value.”
Product placement deals have been going on for DECADES in TV. It is actually SIMPLE economics.
This is hardly news… any of the soft-news pieces that litter an evening news cast have to count as product placement, don’t they? The coverage of the Apple iPhone recently pretty much has to count as commercial time, doesn’t it? (“I’m down here at the Apple Store on X, where people are lining up already to purchase the new iPhone. Now the new iPhone has a lot of features, including X, Y and Z, which is making demand high…”)
I’m curious if the news anchors are actually drinking it. Do you see the coffee slowly emptying from the containers, or are you just seeing the ice melt? If it seems like the news anchors aren’t touching their drinks, it’s an obvious ploy.
A lot like how some news anchors all have laptops in front of them showing off the APPLE or DELL logos on the lid.
Back to the 50’s!
Product placement was on most TV shows and there have always been adverts during a newscast.
How is this any different?
“The ad agency that arranged the promotion said the coffee cups would most likely be whisked away if KVVU chooses to report a negative story about McDonald’s.”
This just in… McDonald’s ice coffee tastes like cold piss. More at 11.
Was it just me? I didn’t even notice the coffee cups. I was too dazzled by the fact that woman’s boobs are bigger than her head.
I gotta tell the story of product placement. I was working a gig in Miami and had to run over to K-Mart to pick up a couple of things. I’m standing in line waiting to checkout. In front of me is a black woman and her young son, about 11 years old if I had to guess. The son had the Nike Swoosh shaved into his hair.
“So.”, I asked the mom. “How much is Nike paying your kid to advertise for them on his skull?”
Woh! Talk about some dirty looks from mom and son! She acted like she wanted to kill me.
I found out later, not being from Miami, the the blacks there generally loath the Cubans. I’m a California mutt, but I get mistaken for Mexican, Hawaiian, Cuban, Indian, Puerto Rican, Italian, etc, etc. So this Miami black woman thought I was just an asshole Cuban being a dick. Wrong! I was a tourist being a dick.
Events rapidly went downhill after that. But that’s another story. Still, I can’t believe some kid thought it was cool to advertise Nike for free, ON HIS SKULL. What a moron.
[Geez Ron, we thought your were Chinarican. – ed.]
All of the content on this website has ads nearby.
Product placement is being edged into Eideard’s blog posts.
Only the (yawn) usual whiners, today, eh? Are all the nutballs standing in the cheese aisle, then?
I couldn’t Coke ™ see the Doritos(tm) cups of delicious Starbucks Coffee(tm) because of the brilliant smiles Crest Toothpaste(tm) of the Fox News ™ hosts.
#17 Sue Boy – Let me fix that for you…
I couldn’t Coke ™ see the Doritos ™ cups of delicious Starbucks Coffee ™ because of the brilliant smiles Crest Toothpaste ™ of the Fox News ™ hosts.
#3 – Mister Mustard – I would make it a point to look at whatever the talking heads were pimping, and then AVOID BUYING IT AT ALL COSTS.
I’m with you on this, Ayatollah.
#13 – chuck – Was it just me? I didn’t even notice the coffee cups. I was too dazzled by the fact that woman’s boobs are bigger than her head.
Yeah, that was something that struck me as well.
#14 – Ron Larson
Funny story! 🙂
[Comment deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
TV = ALL ADS, ALL THE TIME !!! SELL, SELL, SELL !!! But that’s what AD Supported TV is all about, and it ALREADY ON THE ‘NET TOO !!! Just learn to TUNE IT OUT AND IF YOU NEED TO, HIT “MUTE” !!!
This website has a Barack Obama ad running part of the time. I think it’s an anti-Obama ad since I vaguely remember it said ‘hype.’ This should help them:
UPDATE: Pop quiz, hot shot. Pick out the “We Are The World” lyrics vs. Obama speech lines.
A: “We can’t go on pretending day by day that someone, somewhere will soon make a change.”
B: “This is the moment we must help answer the call.”
C: “But if you just believe there’s no way we can fall.”
D. “The world will watch and remember what we do.”
E. “Let us realize that a change can only come when we stand together as one.”
F. “We cannot afford to be divided.”
G. “These now are the walls we must tear down.”
H. “This is the moment when we must come together.”
I. “They’ll know that someone cares, and their lives will be stronger and free.”
#14–Ron Larson==well I think what you said was funny, so definitely you should not have said it.
#22–Mike==I’ve been waiting for 2-3 days now to link to an article on “The Age of Enlightenment” and its just not fitting in anywhere. Frustration is mounting. Maybe I should just go ahead and post my BS anywhere like you do?
Wait….there’s “News” on American television now? When did this start?
#20 — You are an idiot.
Ricki Cheese (wow) is a McDonalds ad all by herself.
Whatever. You have a post about product placement, and that’s what I saw next to the post. Then I click on comments and the ad disappears, to be replaced by uninteresting google links.
One benefit of this post, is this is the first time I’ve ever noticed the ads.
Leave it to the cranky bloggers like Dvorak to be muckrakers for the news industry. Why? because there’s little money in blogging and lots of money in the bloated and corrupt news industry.
[Duplicate comment deleted. – ed.]
The black chick should have had a 40.