Product placement in American TV has got so rampantly out of control lately that all kinds of unions have joined forces to try and call for a general product placement code of conduct.

Personally, we can’t stand this insidious practise of sneaking adverts into non-commercial formats. TV shows have become stuffed full of blatant plugs for all kinds of products and services. Frankly, it makes us want to go and run away to the woods with only our super cheap, ultra stylish and easy-to-use video iPod for company. Aah, delicious iPods.

Although product placement is outlawed in the UK, the practise is
rife all across America. And with the growing popularity of things like TiVo
and Sky Plus slowly killing the traditional 30 second commercial, TV networks are resorting to bigging up products for cash during the course of
TV shows.

The Writers Guild Of America West, The Writers Guild Of America East
and the Screen Actors Guild have decided to come together to call for a
code of conduct governing product placement on TV shows, after a recent
dramatic increase in the number of shows which have taken to featuring
named brands during normal programmes. The unions would like to see
clearer product placement disclosure for viewers.

Reality TV is copping the blame for most of the product placement,
as shows like The Apprentice make contestants try and do things like thinking of a new Burger King jingle or painting a giant advert for
Gran Turismo on a wall in New York while Donald Trump shouts about how
brilliant his companies are in the background.

Patric M Verrone, president of the Writers Guild Of America West said:

"They started doing it in reality TV, where writers don’t have union
protections and are easy marks for getting this kind of material in
there. You’re less likely to find it on network prime-time
series, but the creep is moving in that direction. It has become
intrusive and overwhelming to us as a union of writers."

Those prime-time network TV shows include Desperate Housewives,
which featured an episode where Eva Longoria spouted off about how
brilliant Buicks are all the time to everyone she met. A bit like she’s been doing lately in real life about getting her vag wax, but about cars instead.

Will the unions be successful in their attempts to ban product placement? We don’t know, but we do know one thing: that Lastminute.com has some great city breaks at exceptionally low prices. Aah, delicious Lastminute.coms.

Read more:

Hollywood unions object to product placement on TV - New York Times

[story by Stuart Heritage]