Wake up and Smell the Coffee – It’s Nescafe!
01/03/2011

‘Product placement’ sounds a fairly innocuous term, doesn’t it?  Certainly the first legal example of product placement to appear on British TV this week – a Nescafe coffee machine on ITV’s This Morning, seemed pretty tame, and my initial thoughts were that Nestle are getting rather poor value for the £100,000 they reputedly paid for the privilege.

Still, since the relaxation of the advertising rules this year, it promises to be the first of many to swell the coffers of the networks, if not those of the advertisers: revenue is expected to be worth some £50 million a year to ITV alone.  Is this a Good Thing for us in the industry, another wholesome ingredient in the marketing mix?

It has to be said that Product Placement has rather dubious origins.  The immortal Sid James, he of the Carry On films, seems to have lived up to his on-screen persona by taking a back-hander for planting bottles of Johnny Walker Red Label on the set (in one film he opens a cupboard crammed full of the stuff), and Carry On Camping was notorious for promoting Pontins by name (although whether Mr Pontin welcomed the association of his product with lavatory humour and smutty innuendo is not recorded).

Then again, sports sponsorship has often been product placement by stealth.  Robertson’s Barley Water and Marlborough cigarettes didn’t sponsor Wimbledon or Formula One for the sake of the spectators on the ground, but were doubtless hoping to woo the TV audience with glamour by association with these hugely popular events.

And as to product placement in a soap opera, you’ve only got to remember how soap operas got their name – as a sponsorship vehicle for soap manufacturers, in case you didn’t know. Of course, regular exposure to a product – with or without a ringing endorsement – is an effective means of promoting it, and judged on those grounds product placement earns its place in the ad man’s armoury.  But does it pass the ASA’s criteria of being Legal, Honest, Decent and True?

I have to admit to doubts about it being ‘honest’ – it all seems a bit slippery and subliminal to me.  I like to see an advertiser announce his wares boldly and unashamedly – and sell them on the basis of their benefits – rather than some hole-and-corner, under the table transaction.  (See my blog for 22 July 2010 – Trust Me, I’m an Adman)

But then, with a £50 million ad budget on the table, perhaps I’d be persuaded otherwise!