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> I'm not old enough to have seen it, but I've heard some people say half the point of paying for cable way back in the day was so you _didn't_ get ads. That se

by usrusr 10y ago

> I'm not old enough to have seen it, but I've heard some people say half the point of paying for cable way back in the day was so you _didn't_ get ads. That seems to be the case for newer, streaming services. And just yesterday I discovered my first "supported by product placement" disclaimer overlay in a Netflix show. Not a big deal, probably just them getting in line with local regulations, but it might be a harbinger of things to come. Not cutting up the goose that lays golden eggs might just happen to be something that high stakes capitalism is not particularly good at.

colinbartlett 10y ago
Oh wow, they actually labeled the product placement? I often wish I was aware of all the product placement I'm seeing unwittingly. In what locale are you and what show were you watching?
- lhopki01 10y ago
  In the UK all product placement needs to be declared at the beginning. Lots of Youtube stars get in trouble for this in the UK.
  - usrusr 10y ago
    Do they require individually mentioning all the products/brands (which would greatly increase recall metrics, making the placement more valuable to the buyer) or is it just a blanket "supported by product placement"? The latter is what we have here in Germany and I find it rather unfortunate that it covers such a wide range of advertising influence: from lower rates for all that IKEA stuff one would need to create realistic backdrops, to full blown product praise like you would see on a shopping channel.
bendykstra 10y ago
The disclaimer might be new, but not the product placement. The first season of Netflix's House of Cards, which aired in 2013, had an obnoxious amount. It even made its way into the dialogue, turning one scene into a 10 second ad. "Is that a PS Vita. What games does he have?" "All of them." "I have a console at home that I play to relax. I could use one of these for the car!" http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/dsbaldwin32/clips/house-of-cards-sony-ps-vita-product-placement http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/dsbaldwin32/clips/hou...
- brak1 10y ago
  HoC has loads... like it had an iphone app (game) product placement. I tried to find the name of it, but found this instead: "'House of Cards' littered with product placements | New York Post" - http://nypost.com/2015/03/02/house-of-cards-littered-with-product-placements/ http://nypost.com/2015/03/02/house-of-cards-littered-with-pr...
  - dagw 10y ago
    like it had an iphone app (game) product placement. Monument Valley. Although according to both parties no money changed hands. The producer simply liked the look of game, called up the developers, asked if they could use it and the developers said "sure".
    - passivepinetree 10y ago
      It's worth noting that Monument Valley is an excellent game, product placement or no. It's often the first thing pointed to in the whole video-games-as-art debate.
- gambiting 10y ago
  Weirdly enough, I don't mind that as much as actual ads - at least I'm still watching the show.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- usrusr 10y ago
  That's exactly how I came to the same conclusion, that only the disclaimer is new. I am actually quite torn about those disclaimers: once people have officially committed to product placement, any remaining internal unwillingness to compromise writing for placement revenue will break down completely. The opposite is just as worse by the way: our public broadcasting networks here in Germany are producing some rather popular fiction, and they have started to implement draconian rules to fight product placement (after some sizable scandals where the money went to their contractors or employees instead of going to the nominally nonprofit networks themselves). The result is that any time something like social media comes up in, say, a cop show, they have to make up a new fantasy brand to represent Facebook, Twitter or Google. This severely hampers their ability to talk about the modern world. Imagine for example what would be left of The Godfather if you replaced all references to the "brands" of Catholicism (and Christianity in general) or Italy with generic placeholders. You might as well move it from America to the Shire entirely. The influence of product placement is there now matter how you spin it. In House of Cards (US), the worst influence might not be in who paid but in who did not: iirc Twitter seems to be pretty much embargoed in the show, even though they are using it for promotion quite a lot.
AJ007 10y ago
I'm not sure about Netflix, but certainly on Amazon, Hulu, and HBO Go some shows get forced pre-rolls promoting other shows. Contextually it seems relevant but it certainly is a gateway to more ads. My prediction: once Netflix growth flattens you will see them start making moves towards ads. This is billions and billions of dollars in easy cashflow that probably won't just be left sitting on the table by a public company.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

by usrusr 10y ago

colinbartlett 10y ago

Oh wow, they actually labeled the product placement? I often wish I was aware of all the product placement I'm seeing unwittingly. In what locale are you and what show were you watching?

lhopki01 10y ago
In the UK all product placement needs to be declared at the beginning. Lots of Youtube stars get in trouble for this in the UK.
- usrusr 10y ago
  Do they require individually mentioning all the products/brands (which would greatly increase recall metrics, making the placement more valuable to the buyer) or is it just a blanket "supported by product placement"? The latter is what we have here in Germany and I find it rather unfortunate that it covers such a wide range of advertising influence: from lower rates for all that IKEA stuff one would need to create realistic backdrops, to full blown product praise like you would see on a shopping channel.

bendykstra 10y ago

The disclaimer might be new, but not the product placement. The first season of Netflix's House of Cards, which aired in 2013, had an obnoxious amount. It even made its way into the dialogue, turning one scene into a 10 second ad. "Is that a PS Vita. What games does he have?" "All of them." "I have a console at home that I play to relax. I could use one of these for the car!" http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/dsbaldwin32/clips/house-of-cards-sony-ps-vita-product-placement http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/dsbaldwin32/clips/hou...

brak1 10y ago
HoC has loads... like it had an iphone app (game) product placement. I tried to find the name of it, but found this instead: "'House of Cards' littered with product placements | New York Post" - http://nypost.com/2015/03/02/house-of-cards-littered-with-product-placements/ http://nypost.com/2015/03/02/house-of-cards-littered-with-pr...
- dagw 10y ago
  like it had an iphone app (game) product placement. Monument Valley. Although according to both parties no money changed hands. The producer simply liked the look of game, called up the developers, asked if they could use it and the developers said "sure".
  - passivepinetree 10y ago
    It's worth noting that Monument Valley is an excellent game, product placement or no. It's often the first thing pointed to in the whole video-games-as-art debate.
gambiting 10y ago
Weirdly enough, I don't mind that as much as actual ads - at least I'm still watching the show.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
usrusr 10y ago
That's exactly how I came to the same conclusion, that only the disclaimer is new. I am actually quite torn about those disclaimers: once people have officially committed to product placement, any remaining internal unwillingness to compromise writing for placement revenue will break down completely. The opposite is just as worse by the way: our public broadcasting networks here in Germany are producing some rather popular fiction, and they have started to implement draconian rules to fight product placement (after some sizable scandals where the money went to their contractors or employees instead of going to the nominally nonprofit networks themselves). The result is that any time something like social media comes up in, say, a cop show, they have to make up a new fantasy brand to represent Facebook, Twitter or Google. This severely hampers their ability to talk about the modern world. Imagine for example what would be left of The Godfather if you replaced all references to the "brands" of Catholicism (and Christianity in general) or Italy with generic placeholders. You might as well move it from America to the Shire entirely. The influence of product placement is there now matter how you spin it. In House of Cards (US), the worst influence might not be in who paid but in who did not: iirc Twitter seems to be pretty much embargoed in the show, even though they are using it for promotion quite a lot.

AJ007 10y ago

I'm not sure about Netflix, but certainly on Amazon, Hulu, and HBO Go some shows get forced pre-rolls promoting other shows. Contextually it seems relevant but it certainly is a gateway to more ads. My prediction: once Netflix growth flattens you will see them start making moves towards ads. This is billions and billions of dollars in easy cashflow that probably won't just be left sitting on the table by a public company.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]