BIONIC SYNERGY IN ADVERTISING…
I DVR’d the premiere episode of the new ‘Bionic Woman’ action drama television show. It’s pretty dope too, but considering it’s produced by the folks that make ‘Battlestar Galactica’ I don’t consider that a stretch. ‘Bionic Woman’ even has some of the cast members from the Galactica series namely the chick that plays Starbuck Kara Thrace. All of that is well and good, but during the commercial break of ‘Bionic Woman’ I saw an interesting commercial.
Nissan is going in hard with NBC Universal to push up the sales of it’s newest SUV called the Rogue. When I watched ‘Heroes’ the other evening I noticed a few scenes were the car was shot as the centerpiece of the scene and the characters were placed awkwardly beside it. During the ‘Bionic Woman’ telecast NBC advertised a promotion to give several of the vehicles away after they had been signed by the creator of the ‘Heroes’ series, TIM KRING.
All of this to say that advertisers are scrambling to have their products placed now that viewers are no longer watching their expensively produced commercials. The same money that was being spent to sponsor network programming is now being used to underwrite and produce specific shows. TiVo means never having to watch a commercial again, or so I thought. Now the programming itself has become the commercial.
September 30th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this too.
It may have been in the BW pilot, but I heard a dude say ‘so and so is the cadillac of so and so’. Then the very first commercial is a caddy spot.
I also remember watching an ep of ALIAS with 5-head chick (Not a Garner fan) and they’re running through a parking garage looking for a car to chase bad dudes with (No President Ronnie) and she goes ‘lets jump in this Ford F50!’ next commercial? YEAH, THAT JUST HAPPENED.
Don’t watch Channel Zero!
September 30th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
they’ve been doing that shit in movies for years. If you ever see the movie THank You For Smoking they go into a small amount of detail about it. It even happens in music videos. Jay-Z did it with Ace of Spade champagne, M.O.P. just got paid a grip to put some bullshit liqour in their next video, it’s everywhere. Hell rappers even place thier own products in video’s. You always saw Dame shaking the invisible dice with Armandale in his hand, wearing Rocawear jeans and shit. But as much as you may hate it, subliminally you buy into it. We begin to identify with what we repeatedly see on television. Not everyone but most people, especially poor people. We always want what we can’t have.
September 30th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
^ why so we want what we can’t have?
September 30th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
They were doing this all last year with the Nissan Versa. I won’t lie, me and my roommate play spot the advertisement in NBC shows, The Office being the worst offender.
Realize the production quality of tv shows would be about the same as Wild N Out unless corporations weren’t willing to shell out stupid sums of money. Damned if it doesn’t work because they’d be out 5 minutes ago if it started to smell like a losing idea.
If you’ve got some old folks in your family or your folks might be on that direction, just check this out. My state is never in the news for anything positive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/business/23nursing.html?ref=opinion
September 30th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
product placement at its finest
yo Señor DP..u see that Fantastic Four 2 yet? I wonder how much Dodge paid for that 4-5 second Hemi push?
September 30th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
a better choice of words would be: we want what we can’t afford. The people in advertising don’t give a damn how much the product costs that they are selling, they just try to stick it in your face [//] as much as possible under the best possible lighting.
September 30th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
so, whats the new nissan like? i got a maxima right now and when i start getting paid i am considering a nissan, possibly the murano.
September 30th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
^ The Rogue is like the Murano Lite. MSRP is about $22,000.
October 1st, 2007 at 8:49 am
In the Heroes episode, Claire says “Dad, you’re giving me the Rogue?”
Who needs commercials?
October 1st, 2007 at 10:15 am
D, didn’t know you were up on Battlestar Galatica. For real, the best show on TV last season, BEST!!!