It's called "branded entertainment" in the media business, and in that business it's currently all the rage.
If you remember the BMW films that were made, and shown on the Web on the BMW website, well that was one of the classic examples that started this trend. These were little action films with big-name directors and stars, and big budgets, in which all the cool car chases featured BMW cars. Innocent enough you might think?
Well now "branded entertainment" is moving into local "news" programming.
The Hollywood Reporter today (Thursday March 16) tells how local television stations are starting to whore themselves out, to "integrate" products into "news" programming. For money.
"There are more local news stations that are incorporating brands into news in innovative, cutting-edge ways," says Aaron Gordon, president of entertainment marketing firm Set Resources Inc. "The line, which has always been black and white in terms of what 's news and what's commercials, is now being blurred".
Great news for America! More after the fold.
Ya gotta love it when corporate propaganda is referred to as "innovative" and "cutting edge". And when those spearheading the "blurring" of what's news and what's commercials are championing this very blurring.
Unfortunately, the article isn't available online except to subscribers. But I can type pretty fast, so here comes some excerpts of the damning info:
A number of local stations, including Young Broadcasting's indie KRON-TV San Francisco and Univision O&L KMEX-TV Los Angeles, confirmed that they have integrated advertisers into their newscasts and are actively seeking out product-integration deals. Meredith Broadcasting's Fox affiliate KPTV-TV Portland, Ore., launched a new lifestyle show in January called "More Good Day Oregon" as an extension of its morning news program "Good Day Oregon" that airs weekly segments designed to serve as vehicles for brand integration.
Such other stations as CBS Corp's indie KCAL-TV Los Angeles and Gannett's NBC affiliates in Denver, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Cleveland are experimenting with integration into newsmagazine-type shows that they describe as entertainment rather than news.
"We're all trying to find ways of integrating commercial messages into content that satisfy the audience and advertisers without hurting our product," KRON president and general manager Mark Antonitis said. (snip)* "You have to be creative for your advertisers without compromising the credibility of your news organization."*
An yes, there they are getting all creative on us again. Creative wiith the news. What about the truth?
This may seem like something minor right now, something that only a few local stations are doing, but read on:
At present, full-fledged brand integration into news programming appears to be limited to local news, but some marketing experts suspect that the network morning news shows won't be far behind.
"We are already seeing an erosion of the 'editorial wall' in network newsrooms, particularly for morning news and news-magazines," said Jim Johnston, partner at the law firm David & Gilbert, which represents both media agencies and entertainment clients.
Here's a specific example here:
Univision's KMEX has an ongoing integration partnership with health-care provider Kaiser Permanente Southern California as part of what the station calls its "Lead a healthy life, get the facts" public-service campaign. Kaiser physicians are interviewed on myriad health topics on Univision's various news programs, news footage is shot at Kaiser facilities, and Kaiser patients and support groups are featured in news segments. As part of the arrangement, Kaiser pays additional fees for the integrations, which are not disclosed as such during the news programs.
"Bringing Kaiser on board was a win-win for both of us because they get the exposure of their physicians on television and we have their experts giving us the medical view on a particular health issue and providing vital information to our audience," a Univision spokeswoman said. "Typically news isn't for sale because you need to maintain your integrity. However, you also need to be creative to find ways to include your advertisers without damaging your credibility."
She said KMEX also has involved some of its news personalities in on-air integration/promotion deals with other advertisers, including a major automaker. Last month, KRON aired an 11-day "Spa Spectacular" series in which 11 locl spas were featured in the last half-hour of its five-hour morning news programs and viewers were offered the opportunity to purchase half-price gift certificates for spa services.
(snip)
"We bring on people all the time to talk about books, products and interesting news ideas anyway," Antonitis said of KRON's deciision to integrate advertisers into its news programming. "So if we can have the added benefit of a new revenue source and give something to our viewers that they wouldn't be able to get otherwise and advertisers get their products advertised, it's a win-win-win".
Yeah, win-win-win for everybody. Except for people who assume that news is actually news. People who don't realize the smiling people lying to them are being paid to do so.
Sincie premiering January 9, "More Good Day Oregon" already has integrated a major local shopping center for a segment on last-minute gifts for Valentine's Day and a local spa for a two-part series featuring the spa's services and a makeover giveaway won by a viewer. In both cases, the advertiser's involvement was disclosed in the end credits.
"It's proving to be a fairly popular way to work with advertisers here in Portland," McCreery said. "I think it's going to catch on. Gone are the days of just selling spots in the local shows. You have to move beyond that if you want to take it to the next level".
And that's not all of the story. It seems Bush's 1.6 billion dollars spent on P.R. has given quite a few people ideas:
....there are also a number of back doors into local news shows. According to product placement agencies, there are news production companies that strike their own integration deals with advertisers without informing the dozens of local news stations around the country that pick up their segments.
Wow, that's exactly what Bushco was doing with their fake "news" stories that they would deliver to local news stations. Hmmmmm.
There are also industry experts paid by advertisers to talk about their brands on both local and national news programs. Despite news reports last year about experts who had failed to disclose financial relationships with the brands they pitched on network morning news shows and assurances from the networks that they were either tightening or reviewing theire policies to prevent any recurrences, marketing experts say they are certain the practice is continuing.
"This type of thing is happening to a greater extent than people realize," attorney Johnston said.
I work in the television commercial industry, so maybe I'm more jaded than most, or maybe I'm just more aware of how much money, effort, ego and artifice goes into the creation of that smiling, white-toothed illusion of a perfect world that spews out into our living rooms through the millions of television sets across the country.
I don't have any brilliant way to wrap this up, but I thought this was important and I wanted to share it.
Just another small sad step in the seemingly unstoppable journey to total corporate domination of our world.