Comments on: Las Vegas station plugging products during newscasts

By: Dan Wool

Dan Wool — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:25:34 +0000

hey baby hey baby hey baby

By: Pat Elliott

Pat Elliott — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:12:04 +0000

Dan: Damn. They caught us.

Len: Guess we have to change the name of the blog to the “Valley Ho Blog”

You guys are…um…priceless. Keep up the good work.

By: Dan Wool

Dan Wool — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:39:20 +0000

NEWS DIRECTOR: (barking) “What’s it like to always be the smartest person in the room?!”

HUNTER: “It’s TERRIBLE…!” (sob sob sob)

By: Felice

Felice — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:29:19 +0000

The Holly Hunter character in “Broadcast News” would be mortified. I say, “oy vey.”

By: PRChick

PRChick — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:08:12 +0000

Channel 12 is all pay for play these days, so half the time I figure why bother? Nothing new…

By: Dan Wool

Dan Wool — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:26:02 +0000

“Cutting-edge?” Are you kidding? Stuff like this has been going on for years — it’s Publicity (and Advertising) 101: get a trusted third party to endorse your product. With the kind of light banter that goes on during AM (a/k/a -ahem- “coffee talk”) shows, it fits right in.

So when we secure something like this for publicity sake it’s okay but when McDonald’s or other consumer brands are smart enough to formalize it and help stations skirt the squirmy feelings every TV producer has about a blatant food or product plug, it’s not?

How is sending Brad Perry to get a massage on-camera at some Scottsdale day spa on “National Backrub Day” any different? Or The Knot wedding magazine doing an 10 week wedding contest on The Today Show? Or the pay-for-play that goes on with the local midday shows? Or the ghosted NBC Olympics logo on their national newscasts? Or Paul Harvey pitching Roach Prufe mid-newscast?

It’s all the same. Whether it was a timely PR pitch, a cross-promotion, a paid — or in this case, a passive — advert, it’s content generated commerce.

Yes, it is sad to see a co-mingling of news and commercialism but let’s not be naive either — ads of all kinds have paid news department bills since Grog chiseled a dinosaur steakhouse ad into the first newspaper.

So, damn. They caught us. They monetized our idea and the terrain is no longer free for PR people to secure on our own. On to bigger challenges — clearly, we can lead anchors to coffee, but now must get them to drink.

By: Pat Elliott

Pat Elliott — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:00:23 +0000

Len – In a market where “The Place with More News” calls on-air talent “3-TV Personalities” and multiple stations run paid advertising disguised as programming, can product placement be far behind in local news?

Some local broadcast reporters may want to join you in selling those cars.