Product Placement: WGA Going Crazy, Stop Them Before It’s Too Late !!
By fred | June 27, 2008
Jesus, I can’t believe this shit !!
Oh yeah, let me tell you what’s going on : while everyone wonders whether or not people, namely AFTRA, SAG, AMPTP and others would be crazy enough - and stupid enough - to let another strike happen, the WGA has been acting completely crazy on its own, back in Washington DC.
According to Nikki Finke, the WGA is worried about product placement and the fact that viewers might not be aware of what’s going on. Now I would think that by now everybody knows that last season Heroes were trying to sell cars, but I’ll admit it isn’t always as obvious as to see Tina Fey looking into the camera and ask, “Can we have our money now ?” after praising some phone services for 5 minutes with co-star Alec Baldwin.
Still, nothing can justify what they want, which is nothing less than “real-time disclosure”, aka they want to see a crawl at the bottom of the screen when product placement is happening in a scene, to let viewers know !!
Seriously, this is getting me so pissed off I would punch them in the face until their noses are internal organs at this point.
The Writers Guild urges the FCC to require on-screen “real-time” disclosure when product integration occurs, in order to make viewers fully aware they are watching a paid advertisement. The WGAW believes the most fair and effective way to alert consumers that products have been integrated into programming is real-time disclosure whenever a product is being mentioned, referred to, and/or exhibited, to help viewers differentiate TV programming from paid advertising.
I’ll translate if you didn’t get that : “Viewers are morons, they can’t tell they Ford actually paid to get their car on Knight Rider, they need to be told. Also, they should be warned that buying a Ford won’t get them a talking car that an drive itself, it needs to be told, otherwise those idiots won’t know.”
Did I mention how I felt like punching those morons in the face already ? Yeah ? Okay good, cause I really feel like it. Don’t anyone remember what the great Lewis Black told during the last Emmys ?? Because that genius hilarious man wasn’t only being incredibly funny, but all of what he said was actually the truth, a perfect expression of how millions and millions of viewers do feel !
We can’t stand all of those freaking ads and other crap that pops up on the screen while we’re trying to watch our shows !! It’s enough that we have to deal with the network logo (not always the smallest and more subtle thing you could think of…), the ad for what’s coming next, what’s on tomorrow, next week, the big premiere in two weeks, what we’re actually watching - in case we forgot, reading all those freaking ads! - and other BS like that, and now the WGA wants to put even more crap on the screen while we’re desperately trying to watch the show ?!? Are they freaking insane ??!
And what about making a standard out of those “extended version” ABC did for Lost, always popping up the names of the characters on screen, also a little summary of what’s happening, the actor’s name too, maybe the name of the song playing… just if we could keep, say, maybe 1/23rd of the screen for the actual show, if that’s not too much to ask for, of course.
This is without a doubt the kind of shit that will drive and does drive more and more people away from television all the time, it will get people to wait and watch their show on DVDs, where all this crap is banned. Hell, I’m sure it could drive people to illegal downloading and such. Why? Because if the networks are working so hard in ruining our experience of the show, the least we could do is try to hurt them too and not get them any ratings. Sure, it’s retarded, so is that idea!
So let’s all stop being stupid, and stop coming up with shit like that, for the sake of everyone.
By the way, I’m wondering if that might not actually have been a secret idea of advertisers, but they never even dared saying it out loud. Because now, when you watch a show, you won’t be able to miss it and think it was just some random meaningless PDA or yet another standard car, no, you’ll have to notice it because in the middle of the show, a message will show up to let you know : “Hey! See that car? That car that your favorite character is driving? It’s a Ford. Yes sir, this has been paid for by Ford, because this isn’t just a car, it’s a Ford. Not just “a” Ford, but the latest, model available near you for only…” I mean FFS what the Hell is that idea ??
And please, don’t bring up kids, kids too young to know about product placement, because those kids don’t care if it’s a product placement paid for by some big company or not, they get excited watching commercials and ask for the stuff they see then if they like it, they couldn’t care less who paid who to put it on TV, all they care about if when mommy will get it in their hands !
I hate this crap, whether it’s coming from network execs or the WGA, it’s the same, it irritates me, it annoys me, and here’s a great reminder that, when watching a show, viewers want to watch that show, and only that show, in the great and funny words of Lewis Black himself :
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