Recently a deal was made between Sony and NBC to get adverts for Memoirs of a Geisha written into the storyline of the TV series Medium. Is this a new trend? Are we going to see movies advertising in TV shows and vice versa? Looks just like the case.
According to Kung Fu Cult Cinema the advert took the following form:
Arquette’s character, Allison, finally got a much-needed night on the town with her husband, and the two decided to attend a special advance screening of Geisha. When they arrived at the theater, not only was the film’s title bannered on the marquee, but the couple also ran into two friends who had just seen the movie and loved it. And just to reinforce the film’s title, throughout the episode Allison’s daughter Bridgette kept asking for the definition of a geisha.
The Worldwide marketing President of Sony, Geoff Ammer, went on to say:
We are watching the erosion of commercial watching due to DVRs and TiVos, so we’re trying our best to get out there…We don’t own a network, so there are promotional ways that we do it.
I’m usually one against such commercially obvious moves, especially ones that actually interrupt the viewing of your show, but this is quite subtle. Not only are they managing to keep the show flowing (hopefully) but they are also bringing some reality to the characters, in this case we’re seeing that they actually go to a movie, a movie that’s in our cinemas (soon) and something we might go to see too. There, that’s the nice side.
The bad side is it’s product placement and it’s getting round the cutting out of adverts by recording devices which is how these networks make money.
Is this a good thing? Are you in agreement or do you feel it’s far too obtrusive on your viewing of your favourite shows?
I’m one that does get annoyed by the over use of product placement in movies and television.
However, in this case it wasn’t intrusive at all. It flowed with the story of the episode and was barely a part of the stroyline. The part where their child Bridget asked what was a geisha was one scene placed around the morning breakfast rush and not out of context for the sometimes annoying girl character.
In this episode I thought it worked because it was another way these characters were shown as everyday people moving through their everyday lives. Part of the reason I enjoy this show so much is the characters are written as ordinary people and they avoid the usual glam that plagues so many other TV shows.
Sure, it did occur me to that this was a plug for the movie, but it didn’t really bother me. Now, if stuff like this started happening on a regular basis on this tv show or everywhere else then I think could become highly annoying.
well, whatever helps the box office I guess….
As if storylines in tv shows shows are not crappy and cheesy enough, now advertisments for movies will be embedded into the storyline, son of a bitch; I already roll my eyes enough when watching television as it is. And there are people who think, “hmmm,if they went to see this movie on the program and liked it,it must be good, I will see it as well!”
*bashes head against desk repeately*