Wednesday, May 05, 2004
More Product Placements, Fewer Commercials?
David Pinto's excellent Baseball Musings notes that the Spider-Man logos violate MLB's playing rules, which require that the bases, and the pitcher's rubber, be white.
David also has this intriguing reaction to the Spider-Man promotion:
"Frankly, I'd rather see a big Spiderman Logo painted in centerfield. And to tell the truth, if painting a big Coca-Cola sign in the outfield, or wearing Ford patches on their sleeves helped the Royals compete with the Yankees, I'm all for it. In fact, I welcome it. I'm sick of commercials. Baseball games are 15 minutes longer than they need to be because TV stations need to sell more ads to pay for broadcasting the games. Television as a whole should go to product placement within shows to give us more content. Broadcasters can now superimpose any image they want on the screen, from 1st down lines in football to lead lengths in baseball. ESPN puts up ads on wall behind home plate. Let's see more of those and faster baseball games!"
This would be a throwback to old-time radio comedies. In shows like Fibber McGee & Molly, the commercial announcer was a recurring character who interacted with the cast (see the middle of this script, for example) while delivering his pitch. The mid-show plug was part of the script, not an opportunity for a quick bathroom break -- and the sponsor knew that listeners paid attention to the ads.
With networks now running 15 minutes an hour of commercials and promos during prime time, almost anything that reduces the interruptions would be welcome. I could certainly live with a "wacky Chevrolet salesman" character on a sitcom, if his lines were part of the script and his on-air time was used to eliminate one of the commercial breaks.
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David Pinto's excellent Baseball Musings notes that the Spider-Man logos violate MLB's playing rules, which require that the bases, and the pitcher's rubber, be white.
David also has this intriguing reaction to the Spider-Man promotion:
"Frankly, I'd rather see a big Spiderman Logo painted in centerfield. And to tell the truth, if painting a big Coca-Cola sign in the outfield, or wearing Ford patches on their sleeves helped the Royals compete with the Yankees, I'm all for it. In fact, I welcome it. I'm sick of commercials. Baseball games are 15 minutes longer than they need to be because TV stations need to sell more ads to pay for broadcasting the games. Television as a whole should go to product placement within shows to give us more content. Broadcasters can now superimpose any image they want on the screen, from 1st down lines in football to lead lengths in baseball. ESPN puts up ads on wall behind home plate. Let's see more of those and faster baseball games!"
This would be a throwback to old-time radio comedies. In shows like Fibber McGee & Molly, the commercial announcer was a recurring character who interacted with the cast (see the middle of this script, for example) while delivering his pitch. The mid-show plug was part of the script, not an opportunity for a quick bathroom break -- and the sponsor knew that listeners paid attention to the ads.
With networks now running 15 minutes an hour of commercials and promos during prime time, almost anything that reduces the interruptions would be welcome. I could certainly live with a "wacky Chevrolet salesman" character on a sitcom, if his lines were part of the script and his on-air time was used to eliminate one of the commercial breaks.
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