The Writer’s Guild of America is seeking a new “code of conduct” to govern product placement deals in television and film, the Associated Press reported yesterday. It would be an excellent example of consumer protection…if the true motives of those involved weren’t so transparent.
The WGA (along with key members of the Screen Actors Guild) claims to want full disclosure of all paid product placements at the beginning of each program or movie, so that viewers will be aware of any “hidden or stealth” advertising contained therein. Sounds great, yes? How thoughtful of them to look out for the poor clueless consumer, right?
Wrong. Like everything in Hollywood, this is about money, and nothing more. The WGA is tired of watching Mark Burnett wallpaper his mansions with C-notes while their entire membership lives in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. Burnett–and the reality empire he spawned–has been milking the product-placement cash cow for years, and Hollywood’s writers and actors want their share of the cream.
There’s one problem with that line of thought, though: Product placement is advertising. Does the writing staff for “ER” get a percentage of every $500,000, thirty-second spot sold in that show? No. So why do reality writers think they’re special?
Yes, the terms of product placement deals are different from standard advertising buys, and yes, writing for a reality show is different from writing for a scripted comedy or drama. So what? Writers for both types of shows are still getting paid–and paid obscenely well, by most people’s standards. Editing footage around this week’s “Apprentice” product plug is part of the job, just like writing Jennifer Garner’s pregnancy into the “Alias” storyline is just another (deplorable) part of that job.
The WGA also needs to give people a little more credit. If my neighbor down the street buys a Ford F-150 truck because Jack Bauer drives one on “24”, then my neighbor’s an idiot, and he deserves what he gets: an ugly truck, and a dent in his bank account. Caveat emptor, buddy.
More importantly, WGA needs to be careful what they wish for. Right now, whether the writers realize it or not, product-placement revenue is helping to keep them employed, by making these shows financially viable. With network TV ratings in steady decline, and advertisers frustrated by consumers’ increasing tendency to skip through standard commercials, product placement fills a growing revenue gap.
The writers and actors can whine all they want about how unfair it is for Mark Burnett to make so much money, or how they hate it when a product plug is shoehorned into their scripts, or how reality writers deserve to be paid more than they are. Those are separate issues. They can be addressed without rattling the FCC’s cage–and without undermining what is currently Hollywood’s most effective solution to declining TV and movie viewership.
So listen up, spoiled writers and actors: You might not like the cash cow. You might think it’s ugly, and awkward, and an affront to your artistic sensibilities. It probably is.
But the milk that cow produces is paying for your house, and your car, and your personal assistant, whether you realize it or not. And if you kill the cow, you might get a nice steak dinner out of the deal…but then it will be gone.
