As an effort to financially support television broadcasting the UK decided to cancel the ban on product placement affective at the end of February this year.
Following the EU policies the UK decided to allow products to pay for exposure of their merchandise in television shows. However, there are many restrictions on this, for example at the beginning of every program that contains product placement a logo has to appear for 3 seconds in the corner of the screen always at the beginning and the end of the program containing product placement. The logo will also appear when the show returns from commercial breaks.
Product placement will not be allowed in children's programming and news programming. Also products that promote unhealthy lifestyle such as products containing too much sugar, salt or tobacco and alcoholic products will not be permitted to be placed on TV. Promotion of merchandise and companies cannot be prominent in the TV shows to an extent when the content and plot would be sacrificed.
Product placement will continue to be banned on BBC.
There are some concerns raised by the Church and the public about this issue. The biggest concern the Church presents is that product placement will distort the trust viewers have in the broadcasters. They are also worried that product placement might potentially reduce the quality of programming and promote unhealthy lifestyle. Nevertheless, with all the restrictions on the product placement policies these potential issues will be reduced to a minimum. The protagonists of product placement think it will be beneficial for financing broadcast television possibly saving it from a crisis and bankruptcy.
To read the full report in the Guardian click here.
Following the EU policies the UK decided to allow products to pay for exposure of their merchandise in television shows. However, there are many restrictions on this, for example at the beginning of every program that contains product placement a logo has to appear for 3 seconds in the corner of the screen always at the beginning and the end of the program containing product placement. The logo will also appear when the show returns from commercial breaks.
The logo approved by OFCOM that will appear on the screen to alert product placement funded programs looks like this:
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| Retrieved from BBC. |
Product placement will continue to be banned on BBC.
There are some concerns raised by the Church and the public about this issue. The biggest concern the Church presents is that product placement will distort the trust viewers have in the broadcasters. They are also worried that product placement might potentially reduce the quality of programming and promote unhealthy lifestyle. Nevertheless, with all the restrictions on the product placement policies these potential issues will be reduced to a minimum. The protagonists of product placement think it will be beneficial for financing broadcast television possibly saving it from a crisis and bankruptcy.
To read the full report in the Guardian click here.
10 comments:
Ah, nice to see someone is finally doing something about this- it was one of the things we discussed when it came to the problems of children programming. I'm not much of a freak for this healthy lifestyle and stuff, but it will be a better world if the quality of children's shows won't have to be affected by the amount of advertised toys and candy.
Although I can't deny that I feel bombarded by the amount of product placements in movies and other shows I have to say that the emerging process of restricting more and more freaks me out. To ban several things from children's programs is a good start but who decides where the end is? Next thing we see is the banishment of laptop brands in the media because it might possibly imply to children that it is "cool" to spend most of your time in front of it. Or that your life will only take place online... Or what about cooking and sports devices for example? Will they be banned because they are "too dangerous" or "too encouraging" to do something bad and unthoughtful?!
What I am concerned most about is that the process of limiting the media wont stop again and that it will be adapted to whoever has the say in the media (Rupert Murdoch comes to mind...) - because who can consider him/herself as free in this kind of media society?
Jules:
I completely agree with you. I don't like the increasing trend of regulating media, especially fictional production which is a form of artistic and creative expression. I am also worried that putting restrictions on the products and lifestyles media can portray might in the end compromise this creativity that TV and movie makers put into their work.
It is such a difficult question, though. Is it OK to promote unhealthy lifestyle, since fictional media are such important trend setters and role models for the society? Or is it OK for someone to put restrictions on someone's creative process while compromising their integrity and quality of the outcome?
I don't know.
Karo, I found you topic very informative and interesting. Personally, I already fed up from all the commercial in the movies or TV shows, because sometimes I think that I'm not watching a movie, but advertising. Sometimes it just too much. For instance, there is a movie called "Night Watcher"(Russian movie) and in this movie they are all the time emphasizing the products which are might be their sponsors, and it really annoying you.
I like this article about canceling ban on product placement and I do agree with those people who are banning products such as: tobacco or alcohol on Television.
As I was reading through your blog, I got into the world where selling products and brands is the only way to survive tomorrow. You are using very good examples of how far the American commercialism can go. This is an eye opening reading for all TV show lovers who always says that they are not influenced by anything from TV shows. Product placement rules!
That is the interesting fact that I have never heard about before. It would be interesting to see the results in some research on how the impacts differ in countries with the product placement and UK where it is restricted in the media. However, I think that nowadays people are too overprotective and instead of addressing different issues they bother themselves to create the restrictions to have everything "safe" or "politically correct". But the UK creates a good contrast to the countries with great influence of the product placement. I fear that with the good intentions to ban certain things and restrict them it would take away our ability to distinguish what is good for ourselves and what is wrong. We might lose the encounters with difficult issues on which we have to make our own opinions. The choice is on ourselves. We are not able relate to the media without the product placement depicting real products but we are also not able to live with the media depicting too much product placement. BOB
Bob: It will be interesting to follow the changes in the TV industry in the UK and the statistics in the next few years, and make a comparison of how product placement changed TV.
You make a great point with the distinguishing of good and bad. I also feel that we and our media are being controlled and regulated so there can be no negative influence of the media on us. But is that helping us? Or is it making us less able to critically evaluate media content and distinguish which elements we will take in as influence? Perhaps further regulation of media content will not prevent us from being negatively affected by it, but make us more vulnerable, more easily affected by the negative, because we won't be able to tell it apart.
Who knows.
First of all, awesome blog! Second, sometimes a brand is like a piece of culture and putting it in a movie or book is almost like a wink to those who share the subculture or a way to evoke the same sentimental feeling about a scene that you may have for a brand. Like a Vespa in a movie about Italy.
I don't think I personally mind product placement that much. Except, every time I see someone use Bing in a movie I think whoa! product placement... everyone uses google.
But when it comes to people with less education than all of us and some people of modest intellectual powers, maybe for their protection we should enforce a ban on product placement. Or how about this, product placement would be allowed as long as noone is getting paid for it?
Greta: Thank you :)
I agree with you on the culture. Brands and products are a part of our cultural identity and each of us identifies with different brands as a part of their personal identity.
HAHA, I have the same reactions to Bing on TV. Every time some "bings" something on Gossip Girl I laugh a little :)
To your last comment. It is a question of ethics whether it's OK to target people who are not capable of critically analyze it and decide upon themselves. Like children, or people with lower intellectual capabilities. (god that sounds terrible :() But your plan wouldn't work, TV shows and movies are usually not eager to display brands and products in their plot, unless it is something iconic that the character would suffer without. Companies pay a lot of money for their products to be displayed on in TV shows. And the TV business does not have enough money to fully support shows, so they often get paid for by ads and PP. So if we ban product placement are we willing to see our favorite shows get cancelled for insufficient budget?
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