NBC to Create Programs Centered on Sponsors

explosivejared writes "It sounds farcical when you first hear it, but NBC has teamed up with an ad agency to produce actual feature programs that are centered around promoting the products of the network's sponsors. The network has already begun production on one sci-fi program entitled 'Gemini Division,' which will act as a platform for products from Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco. The programming will be broadcast via the network's 'digital properties,' e.g. the NBC web site. I guess it was only a matter of time for something like this to come along after product placement became the norm."

Nothing new here.

[Steauengeglase]

This was the norm on old radio programs.

Jack Benny centered who knows how many of his jokes on Jello. In the Whistler, people were always pulling into Signal gas stations. Sometimes going miles to fine one of those "fine signal gas stations". Fibber McGee & Molly even made the Johnson Wax pitchman the crux of their plots.

With lower costs in producing this kind of stuff it makes perfect sense. Everything old is new again.

We've come full circle.

[Seor Jojoba]

They aren't really trying anything new so much as going back to the old ways of advertising. Ever heard the Jack Benny Program (also called "the Lucky Strike Program", "the Chevrolet Show", and other sponsor-reflecting names)? The show would seamlessly include little bits where the entertainers themselves sell you on the benefits of their sponsor's products. And the sponsors were definitely "at the table" affecting content in the shows.

I can't blame the networks. They have to get the money from somewhere.

Haven't any of you seen REALLY old tv shows?

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember seeing several old shows where the product sponsor was woven well into the plot... One in particular where Jell-o took a highlight spot... it's not a new thing, just coming back into favor.

"I guess it was only a matter of time for something like this to come along after product placement became the norm"... Again... look back at some of the earliest tv shows - particularly variety shows and their radio show predecessors. You'd think nothing before 1980 happened the way some people talk....

I know to many people that think everything should be done because it's cool and fun and money shouldn't be an issue - it does cost to produce programming and if they can continue to do FREE broadcasting by product placement then GOOD for them.

KNOWING that the product placement is going on is enough to know what their "bias" is.

Re:50's here we come...

[TheWanderingHermit]

Thanks for that point. People seem to forget that product placement used to be the norm. It was also done in many cases in radio shows. Listen to the old Jack Benny show (you can find episodes at the Internet archive: http://www.archive.org/details/oldtimeradio [archive.org]). They mentioned the sponsor quite often in shows and even joked about it. I can't remember the show, but in early TV there was a detective who would often stop in a tobacco shop during the show and talk about his favorite brand of cigar or cigarette with the people in the shop. It was an ad, but done as product placement. TVLand did a service a while back by showing an original (yet updated) version of the original "I Love Lucy" pilot and during such shows the stars would often do the ads themselves or the ads were integrated into the show.

It's not new and it's tiring to see all these people that think it is.

Everything old is new again

[JSBiff]

Granted, the networks and advertisers are kind of taking this to a whole new level, but this isn't such a new idea.

Ever listen to old time radio? I often find myself driving home from work in the evening at a time when my local NPR station plays an hour of old radio shows. Instead of cutting from the show to commercials, they often had commercials built in as part of the broadcast of the show. Burns & Allen, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, etc all often had their skits transition directly into an announcement from Maxwell House Coffee, Crisco, Kellogg's Cereal, Kraft Foods, or any one of dozens of other brands. Even outside of the comedy/variety show, sometimes scifi and horror shows would have some 'built-in' commercials, and shows from all kinds of genres.

Re:wait...

[jd]

That's why a lot of "purist" sci-fi fans prefer to use the more generic label of SF, as that includes "Science Fantasy", which most of the shows you mentioned could reasonably be listed as, and "Speculative Fiction".

Science Fiction is usually reserved for programs or stories that are "close to" the known laws (but can violate one or two for dramatic purposes). Star Wars' "force" could be considered a single violation, their hyperspace the second, so that's still within what could be classically called Science Fiction. The third category, Speculative Fiction, is reserved specifically for programs that do not violate any known law and could plausibly occur if the context and situation described arose in practice. Given the limits of knowledge at the time the original book of "Contact" was written, this could be considered Speculative Fiction. It pushed the limits a bit, but was arguably within the bounds of what was known at that precise time.

Other "SF" categories probably exist, but those are the Big Three. By using SF rather than Sci-Fi, you avoid the problem of misrepresenting either a story or a category. Most people use Sci-Fi as the generic label anyway - Worldcon does, for example - so most people understand it as the generic form rather than the specific form, but the confusion that can cause is avoidable.

Re:Wrong way round

[Yez70]

Not really. Back then they had a show and did live commercials for the toothpaste or whatnot. Now the show will be abut toothpaste, as a topic.

Soap Operas

[Xaroth]

You know, they're called "Soap Operas" for a reason. It's because the early dramas were funded primarily by detergent manufacturers in some of the earliest - and most effective - product placement programs.

This is a very, very old idea that seems to make the rounds every so often. No doubt, this will get tiresome after a couple decades, and the next generation will have this "radical" new idea to encapsulate the advertisements in separate spots rather than integrating them into the programs, and everyone will scoff at what a ludicrous suggestion that is. I mean, won't people just turn off the radio? Er, TV? Er, webpage?