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When Did TV Shows Shrink?

#91
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7/5/09 at 7:04am
  • Joined: June 2006
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kronosis View Post

Brian, I've felt more "product placement" would be utilized within tv episodes themselves.
The problem with product placement is that (1) it doesn't work well in period pieces (either retro, futuristic, or fantastic), and (2) it is often considered far more of an artistic invasion than advertising overlays.

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#92
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7/5/09 at 2:39pm
  • Joined: July 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian^K View Post


The problem with product placement is that (1) it doesn't work well in period pieces (either retro, futuristic, or fantastic), and (2) it is often considered far more of an artistic invasion than advertising overlays.
 

Understood. It is an interesting time in which we live and we're just at the threshold of seeing the convergence of Internet Advertising and Television Advertising, and just how will this convergence affect the consumer? Will DVR's and PVR's be built so as to negate the opportunity to fast forward through commercials? (Look at some DVD's today. Some things cannot be skipped over). Will we be given the opportunity of pushing some button on our remote, acknowledging and rating a particular commercial? (and getting some sort of "reward" for doing this?)

I believe that one-on-one interactive commercialization is just around the corner. Does this mean that your average tv show is gonna jump from 21 or 22 minutes for a 30-minute episode back up to 25 or 26 minutes? Probably not.

More later....

"I just been standin' here, thinkin' how looked up to I'd be, back in Wilder's Holler, if I's to take home somethin' like this jar..."
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#93
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7/5/09 at 4:18pm
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Everyone is missing the point.

Television Programming has went through changes over the past 40 or 50 years. When TV shows were being broadcast back in the 50's and 60's there weren't a whole lot of advertisers back then and TV shows would last for around 48-52 minutes in length.

As the years went by, TV studios found that they could increase the revenue they brought in by expanding the amount of airtime for advertisers and charging more for certain airtime spots.

This had nothing to do with the FCC but rather had a lot to do with the revenue stream the various television studios could bring in to their studios.
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#94
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7/5/09 at 9:29pm
  • Joined: June 2005
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Another issue with product placement:  These sponsors are used to controlling every aspect of all nine hundred frames in a thirty second commercial.  It's one thing to dress a character in (say) Gap jeans, and another when Gap decides that a cast member doesn't look good in them.  It's one thing for a character to drink a Pepsi on screen, and another when Pepsi decides that a Pepsi drinker wouldn't act the way the character is acting.  Sure, "Seinfeld" was a huge hit, but was George Costanza living the sort of life that the Olive Garden wanted to associate with "the Olive Garden experience"?  Would Burger King want a masturbator eating a Whopper?  Would KFC object to an overweight character eating from their bucket?  

And what if a character driving a product-placed Kia was involved in a story that required his car to break down?  (And, by the way, if the network is hoping that Kia will place their cars in an episode, they won't want any other car visible, for fear of offending the sponsor.  That means not just covering up a logo, but hiding the shape of a car so it's not recognizable!  This happens all the time.) 

These are the real world difficulties of product placement.  Most people assume it's an easy fix.  In fact, it's very, very tricky to pull off.  
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#95
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7/7/09 at 5:34pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AnthonyC View Post

The ads for NBC shows when you fill up at Shell are definitely annoying. I know NBC's tanking, but this is ridiculous.
...fill up at shell... tanking... ROFL! 

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#96
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7/9/09 at 1:19pm
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The entire world has changed over the past 50 years.  Wouldn't Babe Ruth love today's baseball salaries.   In 1960 wouldn't Dick Van Dyke love to make what Ray Ramano makes today?  Yes, there are many more advertisers and the networks need them to pay multi-million dollar salaries.  Another thing to recall is that some of these older black and white shows aired 39 episodes a year compared to today's 22-24.
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