Huckster Detector Gear-up
It happened about a year or so ago: this revelation. A coworker had rattled me from a post-lunch comatose, blurting, "Hey did you guys catch that great Bud ad last night during the game? Man, it was really funny. These guys are all just sittin around callin' each other and they just keep sayin' Whassup?! Whassup?! It was cool."
"Hmmm…" I thought, "sounds lame". Then it hit me. He was actually discussing this TV commercial as though it were some late night talk show sketch. Yet, it was nothing more than a product pitch. Could it be that its thinly coated comedic veneer and cushiony soft-sell were enough to afford my friend the willing suspension of media literacy necessary to equate ad with entertainment? Apparently so, because he didn't appear to see the irony of the situation. Maybe he needed a new Huckster Detector. Maybe we all do.
Gettin' It Spread
It wasn't long before the Whassup?! campaign had inspired Web parodies featuring characters from the Superfriends, South Park and Star Wars. There was even a disturbing version inspired by Elian Gonzales-gate, in which Janet Reno swapped whassups with the likes of Fidel Castro and the Miami Family. In no time, the downloadable Whassup?! spot-spoofs became forwarded email hits. The mock ads featured the original Budweiser ad soundtrack, leaving the final "watchin' the game, havin' a Bud" line intact. Surely Budweiser brand marketers couldn't be more delighted by the fact that their ad campaign had been lovingly embraced as a form of camaraderie-bolstering entertainment.
It's what they call viral marketing in the ad biz. Also known as word-of-mouth, this coveted buzz is regarded as the pinnacle of promotion by marketers. The goal: See how many dolts can be duped into passing along branded content to members of their inner circles without knowing, or caring that in essence, they're product-pitching. It often works because it creates a wide degree of separation between advertiser and end consumer. The influential, trustworthy middleman (otherwise known as "this dude from IT I know who me sent this hilarious email") makes for a much subtler sell. Oh yeah, the fact that viral marketing content is usually a helluva a lot more entertaining than a solicitation from the Fuller Brush man helps, too.
Celebrity Knows Best
So, you'd rather engage in less-consumer driven conversation with your friends and acquaintances? No worries for advertisers - they'll get your favorite TV and film stars to brand your brain instead! Take your pick: Characters on The WB's Dawson's Creek prominently display goods like iMacs and Dasani water. Just recently, a reference to the snack food, Funyuns, conveniently made it into the script; multiple bags of the onion ring things peeking from grocery sacks provided ample advertiser reinforcement. If that's not blatant enough for ya, it's too bad if you missed the April 19th episode of NBC's Will and Grace which prompted home shoppers to log on to Polo.com and pick up the pink pony shirt Grace donned during the show. And don't forget ABC's latest entry into the reality show rumble, The Runner. Rumor has it that the show's product placement potential could have network execs experiencing their own form of runner's high.
If you like your advertainment supersized, make sure you catch Universal's Josie and the Pussycats movie. Even the sponsored screen gem's trailer aims to sell: all in all, over 30 logos, from Krispy Kreme to Motorola can be spotted in the 2 minute, 25 second branding onslaught.
Come to think of it, why bother wasting any precious celluloid on actors at all? Why not place all the focus on the sponsors' products themselves? When all is said and done, that is the end that's justifying these merchant means, anyway, isn't it? And Threshold Entertainment ain't too shy to admit it either. The production firm spent about two years cajoling companies to allow for the use of licensed spokes-characters like Uncle Ben, Chester Cheetah and Twinkie the Kid in its upcoming movie, Foodfight, which stars a host of animated spokes-folks. However, Threshold actually is categorizing Foodfight as product placement-free, since companies will pay nothing for the brand exposure. Something tells me that parents who'll drag their kids to this roller coaster ride of brands are the same ones who glean bedtime story material from the backs of cereal boxes and Publisher's Clearinghouse mailers.
Curiously Strong Concerns
So, maybe you're not convinced of the commercial/culture convergence. After all, hasn't advertising always been a source of conversation fodder and entertainment? Anyone who remembers Uncle Milty's Texaco Theater, America's embrace of Charmin's Mr. Whipple, or the widespread recognition of Wendy's "Where's the Beef" tagline could attest to that.
Hey, I'll admit that there have always been culture cross-overs like these, but nowadays, even local cable advertisers are vying for a mention in tomorrow's water cooler discussion. Witness the popularity of the AdCritic website. Dedicated to showing "All Ads All the Time," the site boasts a ranking among the top 10 most trafficked broadband sites in the world. Think about the fact that watching and analyzing ads that run during the Super Bowl and the Oscars has, in recent years, become a pastime that's no longer exclusive to ad industry folk. Consider Coca-Cola's donation of over 20,000 TV ads to the US Library of Congress last year, which, according to The Library's site, reflect "five decades of local cultures around the world and will provide an extraordinary resource to researchers and historians of popular culture." Still incredulous? Then take a moment to conjure up your old college dorm room decor. Chances are, complete collections of print ads like the ones for Absolut Vodka and Altoids Mints that can be seen plastered on today's walls of higher learning didn't classify as appropriate extensions of self back in your undergrad days.
Not only has advertising become an accepted representation of culture and source of entertainment; in some cases advertising has co-opted culture itself. Exemplifying this theory is Volkswagen's ongoing branding campaign. Ever since VW's 1997 TV spot raised awareness of a forgotten song called Da Da Da by German band, Trio, the automaker has featured a number of lesser-known tunes in its ads. The commercials have sparked an underground music revolution, or so the car-makers would have us believe. So, in response to this alleged ad-inspired sub-culture clamor, Volkswagen has created a 24/7 branded online radio station. What VW has done here, in essence, is commandeered underground music culture for use in its own branding efforts, laying claim to entertainment with its own pre-established aesthetics, and presumptuously slapping the Volkswagen label on it. Talk about Farvegcrooken.
Is Your HD on the Fritz?
All of this leads me to wonder how people came to be so consenting when confronted with advertiser ploys. Haven't the majority of adults been exposed to mass media for long enough to have developed some sort of media literacy capabilities? I know I've had my Huckster Detector installed for years now; without it, I'd have a tough time separating increasingly infiltrative sales attempts from entertainment and other types of content. Are everybody else's Huckster Detectors on the fritz? Or worse, are people ignoring their Huckster Detector alarms? I guess it would make sense. As we all know from our experiences with car alarms, once an annoying siren is repeated enough, it becomes an easily ignored drone. In other words, perhaps advertising has become so ingrained in our daily lives that it's allowed for the expansion of cultural comfort zones, thus enabling the conflux of advertising and entertainment, with little or no struggle from us willing consumers.
Although I'm confident that there will always be entertainment and other extensions of culture that are free of sponsorship influence, I suggest we all invest in new and improved Huckster Detectors right away. At the rate things are going, maybe we should get back-ups, too.
Advertainment Lament