Name-brand products make regular appearances on television shows, where they are typically written into a drama, comedy or reality program. “American Idol” viewers, for example, have come to expect to see a Coke cup in front of a judge on the show, Simon Cowell, as he berates contestants.
In recent weeks, anchors on the Fox affiliate in Las Vegas, KVVU, sit with cups of McDonald’s iced coffee on their desks during the news-and-lifestyle portion of their morning show. The anchors rarely touch the cups.
Executives at the station, one of 12 owned by the media company Meredith, say the six-month promotion is meant to shore up advertising revenue and, as they told the news staff, will not influence content.
The arrangement does raise questions about potential conflicts between the intended message and news content. The ad agency that arranged the promotion said the coffee cups would most likely be whisked away if KVVU chooses to report a negative story about McDonald’s.
Neither the agency nor KVVU would reveal the price of the six-month deal.
The logical outcome of nutball economics. Everything is reduced to its commercial value.
TV = ALL ADS, ALL THE TIME !!! SELL, SELL, SELL !!! But that’s what AD Supported TV is all about, and it ALREADY ON THE ‘NET TOO !!! Just learn to TUNE IT OUT AND IF YOU NEED TO, HIT “MUTE” !!!
This website has a Barack Obama ad running part of the time. I think it’s an anti-Obama ad since I vaguely remember it said ‘hype.’ This should help them:
UPDATE: Pop quiz, hot shot. Pick out the “We Are The World” lyrics vs. Obama speech lines.
A: “We can’t go on pretending day by day that someone, somewhere will soon make a change.”
B: “This is the moment we must help answer the call.”
C: “But if you just believe there’s no way we can fall.”
D. “The world will watch and remember what we do.”
E. “Let us realize that a change can only come when we stand together as one.”
F. “We cannot afford to be divided.”
G. “These now are the walls we must tear down.”
H. “This is the moment when we must come together.”
I. “They’ll know that someone cares, and their lives will be stronger and free.”
@Ed: Thanks! “Chinarican”. Never heard of that before. I’ll have to tell my sisters about that one.
Going off topic….
In San Diego, there are a lot of half Phillipino and Mexican. The slang for them is “Beans and Rice”. I met a Mexican/German girl from central Texas, where there is a lot of German influence. She claimed she was a “beaner-shcnitzel”. Since my sisters and I are a mix of Dutch/German, Scotch/Irish, Phillipino, and Mexican, we now call ourselves “beaner-shcnitzels with a side of rice (and an Americanized old Norwegian last name to top it off).
And yes, those damn employment race classifications don’t come anywhere close to accommodating us. Hawaii is full of mutts who can’t be classified the way the DOL wants us to be.
#14–Ron Larson==well I think what you said was funny, so definitely you should not have said it.
#22–Mike==I’ve been waiting for 2-3 days now to link to an article on “The Age of Enlightenment” and its just not fitting in anywhere. Frustration is mounting. Maybe I should just go ahead and post my BS anywhere like you do?
Wait….there’s “News” on American television now? When did this start?
#20 — You are an idiot.
Ricki Cheese (wow) is a McDonalds ad all by herself.
Whatever. You have a post about product placement, and that’s what I saw next to the post. Then I click on comments and the ad disappears, to be replaced by uninteresting google links.
One benefit of this post, is this is the first time I’ve ever noticed the ads.
Leave it to the cranky bloggers like Dvorak to be muckrakers for the news industry. Why? because there’s little money in blogging and lots of money in the bloated and corrupt news industry.
[Duplicate comment deleted. - ed.]
The black chick should have had a 40.
According to this article, the best part is that the iced coffee isn’t even real. http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jul/21/eye-opener-pitch/
Out of curiosity I went to the KVVU website and did a search for McDonalds and guess what? I didn’t see a single negative story. http://www.fox5vegas.com/search/form.html?qt=mcdonalds
(Including one about the launch of the specialty coffee…) A lot of those appeared before the advertising deal started so it seems like the channel doesn’t just do product placement but fluff stories…
How long until we have product placement IN THE ACTUAL NEWS?
Like our soldiers wearing Nike logos?
Sad that Eideard posts yesterday’s BoingBoing news LINK as today’s Dvorak news.
Oh, yeah… never miss a chance to slam anything conservative. (Even though “local” Fox stations are no more asinine than any other local station.)
#33 LOL! I can see it now: This CIA water boarding is brought to you by Evian. And unlike this helpless prisoner, Evian is “untouched by man, perfect by nature.”
#35 – You’re a complete asshole. What the fuck is your point idiot?
#37- Idiot? If you READ the comment, you’d understand my point.
p.s. Asshole? Look in the mirror. Et voila!
Go the way Fox has and stay highly profitable,
or
go the way the floundering NY Times has and see a whopping 82% drop in 2nd quarter profits.
I’m thirsty for some iced coffee.
boingboing? no thanks
I’m more disappointed that he goes to BoingBoing than that he posted a day old article.