Writers' Guild Says Product Placements Are Out of Control
Have you noticed that your favorite TV stars are now drinking actual Coke and Pepsi on set? That they might order a name-brand pizza or talk about the amazing performance of their new Jeep? There's a reason for that: product placements.
Now the Writer's Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild say that product placement has gotten out of hand and have called for limits on the practice of weaving commercial brands into the story lines of movies and TV shows. The unions have called for the writers and actors to be paid more, because weaving a specific product into an already-written plot is a lot more work. The unions said product placements are up by 44% in film and 84% in television shows last year.
The unions called for a code of conduct that would make it clear from the start of a program that viewers would be watching scenes in which companies have paid for their products to be used.
The unions said that revenues generated last year from product placement deals reached more than $1 billion.
In an eight-page policy paper on the issue, the Writers Guild cited as an example the third season of NBC reality show "The Apprentice," in which Burger King, Dove Body Wash, Sony PlayStation, Verizon Wireless and Visa reportedly paid upward of $2 million apiece have their products incorporated into an episode of the show.
Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild, West, said traditional network standards governing commercial product placement "are increasingly being swept aside in favor of product integration and branded entertainment."
He added: "In their race to the bottom line to create the so-called new business model, network and advertising executives are ignoring the public's interest and demanding that creative artists participate in stealth advertising disguised as a story."
SAG and the WGA added that if they could not win an agreement with producers on the issue, they would file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates broadcast television.
Being writers, of course they issued an 8 page policy paper. But will anyone actually read it? We hope so, because this business of paying everyone but the writers is quite annoying.
