Tivo causing ad changes!?

So, I caught the latest episode of Monk and right at the very beginning
(the setup, if you will), they are describing the contents of a box of
groceries to be delivered. Obviously small details are important in
Detective shows, but it seemed beyond odd that one of the items
described (both shown prominently and described by voice) was very
specifically "Glad Forceflex trash bags". Sure enough, during the show,
I noticed that there were numerous regular ads for Forceflex bags (just
before I skipped over them).

So is this the new advertising model? It was pretty blatent, and really
took away from the story because they emphasized it so much. They're
not going to win any converts advertising this way, all it did was make
me resent the intrusion. If they could've worked it into the plot or
didn't actually bring the episode to a halt during the placement it
might have been more palatable!

Randy S.

On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 10:16:23 -0400, "Randy S." wrote:

So is this the new advertising model?

Everything old is new again. This is a decades-old advertising model being
revived, updated for the times, over the last five years or so.

--
"It is more uplifting to find the beauty, wonder, spirituality, and
reverence in what we can see, than to imagine they only exist in what we
can't see." - http://www.sover.net/~hawthorn/

In article , Randy S.
wrote:

So, I caught the latest episode of Monk and right at the very beginning
(the setup, if you will), they are describing the contents of a box of
groceries to be delivered. Obviously small details are important in
Detective shows, but it seemed beyond odd that one of the items
described (both shown prominently and described by voice) was very
specifically "Glad Forceflex trash bags". Sure enough, during the show,
I noticed that there were numerous regular ads for Forceflex bags (just
before I skipped over them).

I didn't notice the commercials (so there, Man from Glad!) but the plug
at the beginning of the show was so utterly blatant that even I (a
notorious clod when it comes to this sort of thing) noticed it.

So is this the new advertising model? It was pretty blatent, and really
took away from the story because they emphasized it so much. They're
not going to win any converts advertising this way, all it did was make
me resent the intrusion. If they could've worked it into the plot or
didn't actually bring the episode to a halt during the placement it
might have been more palatable!

People noticed a few years ago when Mrs. Soprano kept coming home from
the grocery store with her stuff in a Gateway Computers shopping bag.
Product placement is a big deal these days. Advertisers see it as an
anti-skip tactic, which I suppose it is, but a better one would be to
make commercials that get our attention even as we skip past them, and
inveigle us into watching them.

The Glad bag thing didn't ruin the show for me. Lt. Disher's stupid
idiocy about Kiefer Sutherland did that -- oh, and them running a
Halloween show in July. That didn't work for me at all, even though I
realize why they had to set it then.

"Randy S." wrote in message
...
So, I caught the latest episode of Monk and right at the very beginning
(the setup, if you will), they are describing the contents of a box of
groceries to be delivered. Obviously small details are important in
Detective shows, but it seemed beyond odd that one of the items described
(both shown prominently and described by voice) was very specifically
"Glad Forceflex trash bags". Sure enough, during the show, I noticed that
there were numerous regular ads for Forceflex bags (just before I skipped
over them).

So is this the new advertising model? It was pretty blatent, and really
took away from the story because they emphasized it so much. They're not
going to win any converts advertising this way, all it did was make me
resent the intrusion. If they could've worked it into the plot or didn't
actually bring the episode to a halt during the placement it might have
been more palatable!

Randy S.

It is called product placement, and it is a multi-million dollar industry.
Did you think it was a coincidence that ET liked those particular peanut
butter candies?

TIVO and its ilk are the future of TV and advertisers are sh*.*ting
their pants. Viewers get free (broadcast) or VERY cheap (standard
cable) TV because it's subsidized by advertising.

The only way to (almost) guarantee that your product is "eyeballed" by
viewers is to put it in the show itself. Annoying, yes, but less so
than paying $10.50 to see a movie prefaced by lame TV-quality ads.

Maybe someday the costs of television will shift somewhat to viewers
willing to pay for quality and away from mass-marketed products
overpriced by marketing costs. (And maybe someday we'll get a flat
income or consumption-only tax.)

"Randy S." wrote in message
...
So, I caught the latest episode of Monk and right at the very beginning
(the setup, if you will), they are describing the contents of a box of
groceries to be delivered. Obviously small details are important in
Detective shows, but it seemed beyond odd that one of the items described
(both shown prominently and described by voice) was very specifically
"Glad Forceflex trash bags". Sure enough, during the show, I noticed that
there were numerous regular ads for Forceflex bags (just before I skipped
over them).

So is this the new advertising model? It was pretty blatent, and really
took away from the story because they emphasized it so much. They're not
going to win any converts advertising this way, all it did was make me
resent the intrusion. If they could've worked it into the plot or didn't
actually bring the episode to a halt during the placement it might have
been more palatable!

Randy S.


The average American consumer is much less intelligent than you believe.
They are prone to want what they are told they need and what they see
celebrities using, especially when it's claimed to be from Europe.

If the product placement had been for Tivo rather than trash bags you'd be
all 'school girl giddy' about it.

The average American consumer is much less intelligent than you believe.
They are prone to want what they are told they need and what they see
celebrities using, especially when it's claimed to be from Europe.

If the product placement had been for Tivo rather than trash bags you'd be
all 'school girl giddy' about it.

No, I wouldn't, and I fully understand the place of ads in subsidizing
broadcast and non-pay cable TV content. I can even understand and
tolerate in-show product placement. I just wish they weren't as
obnoxious about it. ET's Reeses Pieces were minimally intrusive, they
had to use some type of food, and Reeses Pieces were as good as
anything. They didn't stop and discuss for 30 seconds how it was *so*
much better to use Reeses Pieces because 3 out of 4 candy lovers prefer
them!

I'm also not going to try to rationalize banning obnoxious ads because
they supposedly don't work. Other people in this thread claim that
annoying ads don't work and just **** people off, but the advertisers
use them anyway. What sense does that make? Product manufacturers pay
ad firms to boost sales. If they don't see a sales boost, said ad firm
is fired. The unfortunate truth is that annoying ads work!
Subconciously they stick with you, and you remember that product later,
even if you don't remember why. Forceflex is now stuck in my head. As
long as I remember why, I won't purchase them, but perhaps at some point
I'll forget where I heard about them. At that point, as much as I hate
to admit it could happen, that ad may still influence my purchasing
decision.

There are things I hate worse. I accept that the ad is enabling me to
see a production for free. What I hate is paying for something and then
*still* having ads forced on me. I don't know how the Movie theaters
these days are getting away with it. And the forced commercials on
DVD's are just as bad.

Randy S.

In article , Howard
wrote:

There is a commercial in my local area that has a very loud annoying sound
repeated several times during the commercial. What effect was the
advertiser looking for? Well, presumably to get your attention, of course.
What effect does it really have? People scramble to, if not change the
channel, then at least mute the tv. Several people have written letters to
various places...newspaper editor, tv gossip column, etc...to express their
opinion of these commercials and that they would never even consider
thinking about purchasing from these idiots. It would appear obvious that
this commercial must immediately be cancelled and never shown again, before
further damage is done to their reputation.


I remember a TV ad in NYC about twenty-five years ago. It was for
jeans -- I think the brand name was Bonjour. It began with a loud
reproduction of a telephone off-the-hook alert. It got your attention,
and not in a good way. (The rest of the ad consisted of video of a
skinny girl walking back and forth wearing the jeans, and a guy
shouting "Bonjour!" over and over again, more and more rapidly, as if
he were approaching orgasm. I think the brand is dead now.)

Alphageek ) wrote in alt.video.ptv.tivo:
It is called product placement, and it is a multi-million dollar industry.
Did you think it was a coincidence that ET liked those particular peanut
butter candies?

Well, yeah, it was, in a sense:

http://www.snopes.com/business/market/mandms.asp

--
Jeff Rife |
| http://www.nabs.net/Cartoons/OverTheHedge/Macarena.gif

Once upon a time, Jeff Rife said:
Alphageek ) wrote in alt.video.ptv.tivo:
It is called product placement, and it is a multi-million dollar industry.
Did you think it was a coincidence that ET liked those particular peanut
butter candies?

Well, yeah, it was, in a sense:

http://www.snopes.com/business/market/mandms.asp

In no sense of the word was it a coincidence; it was straight up product
placement (as the previous poster said), and that's exactly what the
Snopes page you referenced said.
--
Chris Adams
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.