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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Garapal

It's given, movies and TV shows are utilized in advertising. Like for example, cans of corned beef (Purefoods) were displayed in Kris Aquino's kitchen cabinet in "Feung Shui". Orocan products were displayed in Aiai's store in "My Juan and Only." But advertising in tonight's episode of Asian Treasures was just so garapal.

> Gio Alvarez was making a webcall. Suddenly, Smart Bro's Webpage appeared on his laptops' screen. Anong connect ng webpage ng Smart Bro sa pag-web call niya? Di ka naman makakapag-web call through that website.

> Ella V. ran out of cash to pay for her taxi fare. She instead paid the driver through Smart Money.

Ella V : Magkano po?
Driver: P250
Ella V : Ay P200 lang ang pera ko (Biglang nalaglag ang Smart Money na card). Meron ho ba kayong Smart Money?
Driver: Meron
Ella V: Papadala ko na lang dun ang kulang na bayad. (Complete spiel on how to pay via Smart Money)

> After that scene, Ella V. ran out of load and asked Gina Alajar for a load. Imagine all the steps were shown (Ella's text asking for load -- Gina receiving the ask-a-load text then replying -- Ella receiving the load).

Subtle advertising in TV shows is fine. It's acceptable if the situation is apt to pitch those products or services. But what happened in tonight's episode of Asian Treasure didn't give justice to the show. While they tried to create opportunities for placing these ads, it was so trying-hard and so well, garapal.

7 comments:

jenpot said...

ganoon siguro katindi ang pangangailangan nila para dun sa income na manggagaling sa ads (kasi patapos na siya... tama ba?) kaya nilagay na nila mismo sa show. I suppose mas malaki ang placement ng smart don kaysa dun sa usual na 30-seconder ad.

missingpoints said...

The key word is "subtle." The idea is to show whatever it is matter-of-factly. If it were up to me, I'd have Ella V mention and use Smart Money to pay her fare, then have an announcement before the commercial break saying "to learn more about... see print ads..." or something.

Anyway, it's not as if AT were well-written even without the product placements.

missingpoints said...

^ By "subtle" I mean within the story. They can go overboard with "this show is brought to you by..." as long as they don't turn the episode into a commercial.

CBS did this first, with "The Nanny" and several other shows on the same night having a storyline about Liz Taylor looking for her "black pearls" (IIRC) which was the name of her new perfume.

alwaysanxious said...

potchipotch: Yes, patapos na ang show (pangatlong beses ko pa lang manood nito pramis). Given na iyon na malaki ang bayad sa ganung set-up ng placement.

missingpoints: I think, I get your idea of "subtlety". For example, Starbucks's exposure (plus the tag line of sorts, "It's a wonderful choice")in "I am Sam" can be considered as subtle advertising (it's within the context of the story).

And yes, AT is badly written and the product placements made it worse.

missingpoints said...

When 50 Cent raps he's "gonna drink BACARDI like it's ya birthday" someone paid him to insert the brand in his lyrics. There actually an ad agency in NY that specializes in inserting brands in lyrics.

All Alias agents use Nokia phones, "24" computers are Dell, while Veronica Mars switched from Apple in Season 1 to Compaq in Season 2.

Anyway, I guess we should blame it on the brand managers, who (I guess) feel like they're paying to turn a show into a commercial instead of working with the scriptwriters to come up with something that doesn't sound forced.

alwaysanxious said...

Yeah, they have an "all we need is exposure" thinking.

Re: Inserting brands in lyrics

Have you observed if such is utilized locally? I think the use of popular bands/singers to sing a product's jingle and the use of their songs (sometimes tweaked) as jingles are the most common here.

Marketing (Marketing Communications) is an interesting field. I should have taken a LIA-COM course in college.

missingpoints said...

After the fact na yung dito usually. They pay the artist to use the song.

Or minsan ad agency na yung gagawa tapos isasama sa album ng banda. SMB ang madalas gumawa nyan dati (Iisang Bangka, Sabado Nights, etc.)

Pero wala pa akong alam na nagbabayad para isingit yung brand name sa lyrics.