Nike v Adidas in the Top 40
It's legal in the States - but do we want to allow product placement in UK broadcasting?
The government has just begun consulting on whether to implement a European directive that would allow the likes of, say, Nike, Adidas or Rolex to associate their brands with prime-time entertainment.
In many ways the question is irrelevant - because they already do.
Listening to yesterday's Top 40 Chart Show on Radio 1, all three of those brands were featured - sometimes hidden in the lyrics but in the case of the watch, prominently featured in the track title.
To save you the trouble, I scoured the lyrics of the songs and found the following references which would make corporate marketing men smile.
At number 22: "Low" by Flo Rida Ft T-Pain includes the line "Them baggy sweat pants And the Reeboks with the straps". Reebok is a subsidiary of Adidas.
At number 26: "Wearing My Rolex" by Wiley.
At number 23: "American Boy" by Estelle Ft Kanye West has yet another Adidas reference: "Sneakers looking Fresh to Death, I'm Lovin' Those Shell Toes". Shell Toes are Adidas trainers in which the toe of the shoe has a large rubber cap with lines running along it, making it look like a shell. (The style also got referenced in a song called The Way I Am by Knoc-Turn'Al in 2004.)
At number 33: "With You" by Chris Brown featuring the lines "You're like Jordans on Saturday, I gotta have you and I cannot wait now." This is a reference to Nike's trainers endorsed by Michael Jordan the basketball star. The "must-have" footwear was always released on a Saturday.
At number 38: "Love In The Club" by Usher has the line "You ever made love to a thug in the club with his Sice on 87 jeans and a fresh pair of Nikes on"
Some will argue that these are simply cultural references, but I am convinced the fingerprints of corporate promotions men are all over the charts.
In 2005, a US brand management consultancy, Agenda Inc, listed the most commonly featured products in the Billboard 100. Mercedes had 100 mentions and Nike had 63. 50 Cent cited 20 different brands in seven songs making him the biggest name-dropper. Wikipedia has a list if you are interested.
Agenda founder Lucian James is clear: "Over the last few years a lot of people have said hip hop has sold out, that it's full of advertorials. But I take a different point of view. If 50 Cent mentions Gucci, you know it's a global metaphor for success."
The chief executive of Nike Mark Parker has unleashed what he calls "coolhunters" to find out what is happening in the clubs, stores and on the street. "The question is," he argues, "how do you keep an edge, a crispness, a relevance?"
So the corporation has made links with a New York graffiti artist Lenny Futura, LA tattoo artist Mr Cartoon and Brazilian muralists known as Os Gemeos.
The key is to get under the radar - to be part of the consciousness of young people without them being turned off by the big corporate sell. Hence the way in which products turn up within the lyrics of chart hits.
The link between music and consumer brands may be about to become much more direct, however. As the industry considers how to deal with the problem of illegal downloads, one answer being considered is the use of brand advertising bundled up with the product.
At the moment under Ofcom's broadcasting code, programmes and commercials should be clearly distinguished so that viewers know when they are being "sold to". Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has made it clear he is opposed to the idea that product placement should be legalised in the UK.
"My instincts remain that if we were to relax the ban on product placement we would put at risk the integrity in British programming that underpins its international reputation", he says. "But I'm open to hearing other views."
I'm 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~51~RS~)
Comments
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As more and more people use Sky Plus and BT Vision Boxes they are able to fast forward through the adverts. I have been doing this for the last 2 years - it's great! However this means that the advertisers are increasingly going to have to look for other ways to get our attention. Product placement will only further cheapen the quailty of our programmes.
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I'm not saying that your theory is wrong, but rappers have been boasting about the brands they own for decades.
If you go all the way back to Rapper's Delight from 1979 - Lincoln Continentals and Cadillacs are referenced.
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I don't realy care about product placement in entertainment shows.
I don't care if in the Queen Vic they drink actual lager rather than made up stuff, if the BBC can get money for it to invest in other shows all the better.
There should be a limt in factual shows, we should know that the integrity of programs like Watchdog, Panorama and and historical shows isn't tainted by the grasp for cash. For instance in a drama about breaking the enigma code at Bletchley using a iMac.
After all, where's the line between a cookery show promoting a supermarket and one promoting the latest 'How to Cook' book?
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I had no idea product placement was banned. That astonishes me, because it is rampant. If it is really banned, why is the ban not enforced?
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Re: #2
Product placement has been in popular music for decades. Bob Dylan has been endorsing Cadillac since 1963 ("Good car to drive after a war")...
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"Some will argue that these are simply cultural references, but I am convinced the fingerprints of corporate promotions men are all over the charts."
Are you convinced based on any actual evidence, such as knowledge that these artists are getting money or goods from the corporations? Or is this just some inner conviction (paranoia) about a conspiracy? I do not see anything in the information you have presented to clearly show link.
Without such evidence, it seems equally likely that these 'artists' are either shallow slaves to fashion, or commenting on the people around them.
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Run DMC were sponsored by Adidas,
Nuff said
Now its just a little more subtle
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As others have said, this is not by any means a live issue, pop has namechecked brands for decades, from the Beach Boys with their plugging of Coke and Honda and probably before.
So what is the reason for this non-issue in your blog, given it has neither a statistical report, or recent events to spark it off. The only thing I can see is a politician's quote. Is Andy Burnham trying to raise his profile perchance?
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Product placement has been in films for years. It is a sad but established method of marketing. I only hope Ofcom can actually control it enough so the films are not completely ruined!
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So if programmes are to be paid for with product placement, you will not be needing the licence fee any more?
No, thought not!
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I'd rather not have it but so long as it's not 'in-your-face' ad placement then I can put up with it. It might even be an improvement on those awful slots on SKY, C4 and other C4 clones that bombard usl with 'programmes' that are simply big ad spaces. Take away the ads from these providers and an hours worth of programming suddenly falls to about 20 minutes.
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Actually it is normally between 42 and 48 minutes if you remove adverts, but I digress.
The real problem is that commercial television (as opposed to the BBC) has to raise revenue in order to fund its programmess and with the increasing popularity of Sky+ and the various similar services which work on Freeview more and more viewers will simply skip the ads.
At some point that means companies will pull back their advertising spend on television and put it somewhere else. The end result of that is less money in commercial television and thus fewer programmes of lower quality, more repeats and more reality television.
The more I think about it, the better value for money I seem to get from the £12 per month I pay for the (ad-free) BBC than the £21 I pay for (ad-heavy) Sky. And that is without any of the Sports or Movie channels.
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I think brands are mentioned in lyrics in a boastful, aspirational context than that of blatant endorsement. Plus it's not entirely a free for all in the US -- MTV and other music channels have blurred out blatant logos in music videos for decades now.
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I dont see too much harm in it as like in sport say show jumping or sailing Rolex is always promenent or tennis youve got all brands staring in your face so unless you get a four minute single with just nike on it it will go down well on the radio
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badgerce is missing the point. He says ad avoidance means that "advertisers are increasingly going to have to look for other ways to get our attention. Product placement will only further cheapen the quality of our programmes."
The reality is that commercial broadcasters are going to have to look for other sources of revenue. If they don't or can't programme quality will plummet. Product placement might mean commercial tv can actually protect programme quality rather than diminish it.
That doesn't mean it should run rampant or be abused - which is exactly the same reason as why we have controls on advertising at the moment.
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I don't agree with product placement infecting our shows - take a look at US TV for an hour or so - the rampant commercialism of it (and america in general) is horrible, and it's spread to most television throughout the world, it cheapens quality and British television is often a great relief
that said - I don't think we should be draconian about this, product placement does happen on a fairly benign level and we don't need to go around blacking out every logo or reference to a brand - if wiley likes his rolex fair enough, but to open the floodgates and have vera duckworth going to put the washing on with 'new multi-purpose persil' would just ruin television (yes i know she's dead, that's just how much i watch soaps)
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13. At 6:39pm on 29 Jul 2008, JonnyJoe wrote:
"I think brands are mentioned in lyrics in a boastful, aspirational context than that of blatant endorsement. Plus it's not entirely a free for all in the US -- MTV and other music channels have blurred out blatant logos in music videos for decades now. "
I sincerely doubt that is down to MTV's artistic integrity - more likely they realise that if companies can just get their product advertised in the videos, no-one will pay for the ad slots in between what passes for programming on their channel.
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