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12.28.01
Is anybody else getting sick of the product placement debate? The phrase "the graying line between entertainment and advertising" has become as tired and cliché as U2. But this time, there just might be something lying between those gray lines.
According to a 12/17 AdWeek article (Johnnie Walker NBC Plug: Content or Commercial, by Andrew McMains and Ann M. Mack), a recent episode of NBC's West Wing featured dialogue extolling the virtues of Johnnie Walker Blue. Character Leo McGarry sang the scotch's praises: "Good scotch sits in a charcoal barrel for 12 years. Very good scotch gets smoked for 29 years. Johnnie Walker Blue…is 60-year-old scotch."
Obviously, the Johnnie Walker mention is unnecessary. Surely the scene would have worked just as well had McGarry replaced the words, "Johnnie Walker Blue" with "this scotch." Of course, one could argue that the specific brand name inclusion lends more credence to McGarry's slurred speech.
The thing is, the product placement controversy is the surface story. What lies beneath the liquor lacquer is what's really important. It just so happens that the Johnnie Walker plug was not prompted entirely by the advertiser. As reported by AdWeek, it was West Wing's production company, John Wells Productions, that approached S&S, a Diageo subsidiary "that has placed several liquor brands on shows", requesting a brand suggestion to feature in the scene. In fact, Johnnie Walker didn't even pay for the plug according to the story.
Advertiser dollars are so few and far between these days, is it any wonder that besides disregarding the liquor ad taboo, NBC show producers are pressured into playing the media sales game? Could it be that NBC requested that John Wells Productions develop Diageo branded content? Maybe the production company felt compelled to assuage NBC's slow ad situation, or to get cozy with the network's new ad buddy.
No matter what the situation, it's a sad day when a script writer has to manipulate his masterpiece because his boss and his boss's boss have to kiss ass. Surely a little 60-year-old scotch will dull the pain. Come to think of it, Johnnie Walker must have been the one who green-lighted the Emeril show.
Don't you wish there were places to drop off adults when they got cranky or too much to handle? Well, the next time you're shopping in Glasgow, Scotland, that wish could come true and then some. According to a 12/7 AdNews report, "The Braehead Shopping Centre in Scotland is testing a scheme that lets women drop off partners at a kind of 'boyfriend cache', then borrow a fresh 'shopper-friendly' version for a few hours." Hmmm…it's a start, but what I could really use is some cellulite-friendly mirrors in the fitting rooms.
Apparently, shopping has become such a major point of contention between men and women, the hepped-up beverage maker, Lucozade Energy decided to sponsor the "Shopping Boyfriend" promotion. As featured in a 11/ 8 Ananova story, the company commissioned a survey of 800 18-24 year-old men which found that 25% of them would rather have lunch with their grandmas than go shopping with the little woman. So, Lucozade created a Men's Retail Re-charge Zone where women can leave their mates to frolic while the dreaded shopping takes place. The Re-charge Zone's got computer games galore, and no doubt, lots of Lucozade Energy drinks. The question is, do they have one of those cool playrooms filled with colorful, plastic balls like they do at IKEA?
"Our research reveals just how much of an energy-draining experience, not to mention a strain on relationships, shopping with a girlfriend can be for men," comments Lucozade's brand manager, Carol-Ann Stewart. Research also reveals the tremendous strain shopping with a girlfriend can have on a man's credit card balance.
As noted in the Ananova article, one over-the-counter companion "loves shopping -- especially with women, because they have more shops." They also have more curves, but chances are those don't appeal to him as much.
All in all, this stand-in boyfriend thing could be big. But why restrict the service to male counterparts for shopping? I could see this spurring on a whole new industry: there could be football-friendly girlfriends, bad-grade-friendly dads, hangover-friendly bosses, smoker-friendly insurance companies, speeding-friendly cops, girlfriend-friendly wives, the list goes on and on…. Hey, a family-friendly spouse would be a big seller around the holiday season. Although for most of us, a people-friendly family would be more helpful.
Lately there's been a lot of talk about the unintentional sponsorship of evil acts. Philanthropists donate to charities that act as fronts for terrorist organizations. Jewelry lovers adorn themselves with gems and, in turn, unknowingly oppress African children or provide funds to terrorists. Some people even purchase Pepsi without realizing that they're supporting spokespeople Britney Spears and Bob Dole. It could be worse, though: they could be unwitting sponsors of child pornography.
Evidently, many advertisers are. In a 12/14 Red Herring exposé of child pornography on the Web, it is revealed that ads for companies like Chevron, ArtistDirect and Orbitz that run on free Web page networks are sometimes seen alongside nudie pics of kids. How does it happen? Rather than targeting ads for display in certain sections, advertisers make run-of-site media buys on sites like Yahoo. This means that the ads run throughout the entire network, including self-published Yahoo Geocities Web pages, some of which may contain unsavory material like kiddie porn. In addition to potentially corrupting banner ads, many of those child porn sites feature logos for credit card companies such as Mastercard and Visa. Hmmm…maybe Visa shouldn't be everywhere you want to be....
Red Herring discovered a banner ad for a Chevron credit card hovering above kiddie porn on a Yahoo Geocities site called Sexteens. Chevron, like the other companies contacted for the story, was appalled. In the piece, spokesperson, Bonnie Chaikind stresses, "We didn't even think to ask if our ads were running in unregulated areas. We're horrified."
Chalk it up to automation and lack of policing. Since run-of-site campaigns on Yahoo automatically run on all pages, including self-published Geocities member pages, and Yahoo doesn't "proactively police the Geocities pages for child porn," it's easy to see how this situation could occur. Needless to say, advertisers are claiming no fault, insisting that Yahoo neglected to alert them to the possibility of porn sponsorship.
Yahoo spokesperson Jackson Holtz contends that the company is "committed to reviewing the content, generally within 24 hours" and has "extensive contact" with advertisers. Still, that doesn't mean that Yahoo is too forthcoming about the porn promoting potential.
If these free hosting services insist on remaining negligent by publishing kiddie porn, the least they could do is serve targeted ads that promote things the dirty-old-man demographic could use: like psychiatric drugs or castration kits.
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Feeling sentimental lately? Longing for the comfort of familiarity? It's a good thing, 'cause it's time again to rediscover the best of this year's Lowbrow Lowdown. Remember though, when it comes to the Lowbrow Lowdown, "best" is a relative term:
So, what's the big deal? Product placement is becoming so prevalent, it's no surprise producers are the ones wooing the advertisers at this point. However, things get interesting when a recent decision by NBC to run liquor advertisements is brought into the sour mix. And how's this for coincidental?: as featured in a 12/14 
It seems as though there always used to be a special place for kids to be plopped down, away from the adults, if only for a moment. For me, it all started in the crying room. The crying room was a small room in the back of my church with a large glass window that enabled viewing into the main church area. For moms and dads, it was a convenient place to take (and sometimes leave) the little-ones when they got weepy or fidgety during mass. For me, it was a freezing-cold, broken-toy ridden dungeon that taunted me into thinking I actually wanted to go back into church. Later on, there was Animal Crackers. Animal Crackers was a club for kids at the downhill ski place my dad used to drag us to. The only thing that made it worthwhile to freeze my snowpant-covered butt off was the après ski lesson treat of watered down hot cocoa and animal crackers they served us in the lodge.
Surely this won't go on much longer. Although slimy child pornographers will continue to find outlets for their deviant desires, publishers like Yahoo will have to clean up their own acts. There's no excuse for knowingly allowing ads to run along content of such a perverse nature without notifying advertisers. Still, some onus does fall on the advertiser. Maybe it's not such a good idea to purchase run-of-site media buys on such huge, diverse networks as Yahoo. I wonder how many media buyers were issued pink slips as a result of this fiasco.