5 Blogs Before Lunch

Michelle Obama, The Tonight Show and J. Crew: An Accidental Product Placement Turned Into A Marketing Campaign

A couple of weeks ago, first-lady-to-be Michelle Obama appeared on the Tonight Show. As a bit of a gag, Jay Leno asked how much Obama paid for her outfit (an obvious slap at Sarah Palin's clothes spending spree). Here's the exchange:

“I want to ask you about your wardrobe,” Mr. Leno told her, alluding to the news media reports that Sarah Palin had a campaign clothing budget of $150,000. “I’m guessing about 60 grand? Sixty, 70 thousand for that outfit?”

“Actually, this is a J. Crew ensemble,” Mrs. Obama replied, to cheers from the audience. “Ladies, we know J. Crew. You can get some good stuff online!”

What started as a joke turned into a boon for J. Crew, who quick took advantage of the situation, turning the accidental on-air promotion into a ful-fledged marketing program.

J. Crew bought “Michelle Obama” keywords on Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, built a page on the jcrew.com Web site that promoted her outfit (a $148 pencil skirt, a $148 yellow and brown tank top and a $118 yellow cardigan), and told call-center representatives how to handle queries about Mrs. Obama’s fashion.

J. Crew says they're pleased with sales but declined to say how many of the items had been sold.

Source: The New York Times

Did Propel Pull Product Placement Promo From Bravo TV Reality Series "Workout" And Why Should We Care?

Propel Fitness Water (a Gatorade company) has been a product placement sponsor of the Bravo TV fitness reality show "Workout" for the last couple of seasons. It has been a nice tie-in. At least until the show got itself in (forgive-me) hot water with the folks at Propel.

In a recent episode, two "characters" displayed a significant lack of sensitivity as they were overheard on tape gossiping about how "fake" a clients breasts were. Turns out the client had re-constructive breast surgery after breast cancer surgery. They were "caught" in their gossiping by the woman's boyfriend (off camera), and apparently apologized to him, and to the viewers of the "reality" show on camera.

The after-affect of this episode was the apparent pulling of the sponsorship by Propel. I say apparent because I have not yet been able to find a mainstream media source of a statement from Propel stating that they are indeed pulling the sponsorship. There are several reports by bloggers, but they seem to all pull back on one another as sources.

But, regardless of whether Propel pulled the sponsorship or not, the bigger, and perhaps more murky question for us marketers is, when do we abandon our sponsorship commitments? How offensive must an action be? Should a marketer respond because of our personal offensive of the comments by the cast members, or because of viewer and consumer outrage--or both?

The answer may just be like the definition of obscenity.

Product Placement Invades Where We Eat And Sleep

A few weeks ago I visited a new restaurant in my neighborhood that very proudly announces that the decor was designed by the folks at Williams Sonoma Home. Did I just come across my first experience with product placement in restaurants?

Now I hear that brands like Sony and Restoration Hardware have negotiated deals that will seed their products in high-end hotel rooms. The hotel deals allow guests to experience and buy a product at a discount made available only through a customer's relationship with the hotel--building both product and hotel loyalty.

From Brandweek:

“Quite often we share the same customer [demographics] as the hotel, so we’re able to co-market and do things together that are more valuable than just selling product,” said Claire Eeles, general manager of Restoration Hardware’s trade unit in Corte Madera, Calif.

For example, as the Luxor hotel-casino in Las Vegas proceeds with a $300 million renovation, Restoration Hardware will design and provide furniture. Table tents and messaging on the hotel TV network will alert guests that these products are available at a discount exclusive to Luxor guests.

Sony will be the electronics provider for Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, N.J., and the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa and Hollywood, Fla.

Fulfillment can occur by ordering online, through a catalog using a special promotion code given to guests, or they can bring that code or coupon to a store for purchase. Brandweek reports that marketers can also pay for access to the hotel database of frequent guests for direct marketing efforts.

GM In Huge Product Placement Deal: 2 Hours Of Free Advertising In The New "Transformers" Movie

General Motors has secured nearly two hours of virtually free product placement, via the new "Transformers" movie, which features GM models as robots fighting the bad guys.

GM, while not paying a penny for the placements, did provide about $1 million in vehicles, who are the stars of the film.

The deal came about, according to Forbes, in large part due to the prior relationship between GM and movie director Michael Bay. Wlliam Morris represents both GM and Bay. Bay also has a history with the car company, having directed two Chevy ads.

From Forbes:

GM is now tapping the buzz around Transformers to push its cars. Fans can create their own transformers at Chevyautobot.com. Maxim's Summer Hot 100 issue includes a Pontiac spread featuring Transformers human star Megan Fox

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Did You Hear The One About Jesus, The Italian Advertising Executive and The Coca-Cola Lawyers?

It seems Coke doesn't believe that Jesus had a "Coke Side of Life"

Variety is reporting that the soda company is taking legal action against producers of a spirituality themed Italian film set in present day Israel in which Jesus drinks a can of Coke in the desert.

In the film titled Seven Kilometers from Jerusalem, a Milanese advertising executive having a midlife crisis gives Jesus a ride on his Jeep, hands him a Coke, and, while Jesus is quenching his thirst, says: "My God, what a testimonial!"

Coca Cola in a letter complained to producers demanding that the scene be cut because it is likely to give Coca Cola a negative image and complaining that use of their brand was unauthorized.

"We are not interested in this kind of product placement," a Coca Cola Italia spokeswoman said.

Spend a Night at The Museum with Apple, Ford, GMC, NASCAR, Nike, S. Pellegrino, Smith & Wesson, Toyota and more.

The new movie, Night at the Museum, was number one at the box office this week. That's good news for a slew of advertisers who signed on to have products placed in the film.

Featured Brands in the film: Apple, Complete Idiot's Guide, Ford, GMC, NASCAR, Nike, Eddie Bauer, NY1, S. Pellegrino, Smith & Wesson and Toyota.

Product placement in film is becoming more and more present. A friend of mine who is not in marketing was surprised, and a little annoyed at the deep product placement integration in the new Bond film "Casino Royale"--"I thought I was watching a very long television commericial. How much did Ford (and its luxury brand division) pay to take over the film?"

Advertisers (and film producers) should watch that fine line between integration and promotional sponsorship. Especially when consumers are paying $10+ and are used to "commercial free" movies.

Product Placements With A Warning Label

In the U.S., paid product placements are legal, and fairly unregulated. In the EU, they are looking to establish some serious controls on not only product placements, but paid advertising in general.

It looks like the European Parliament will decide to allow product placements in broadcasts, with the insistence that a warning would have to flash up on the screen every 20 minutes saying that products have been placed during the programming. The plan comes from the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which regulates product placement, sponsorship and 'surreptitious' advertising across Europe.

Brand Republic reports that the Parliament also voted for the "30 minute rule", which would allow programs of less than 30 minutes to be free of advertising breaks and considering to only allow ad breaks in programs that were at least 45 minutes long. The Parliament also voted for a strong "country of origin principle", which would allow channels to use their own national broadcasting rules when broadcasting to other EU countries.

Product Placement Still Strong On Trump's "The Apprentice"

Even though the Trump's numbers have slumped, marketers continue to seek product placement opportunities on NBC's "The Apprentice," For the new season starting in January, Dial, the first brand to sponsor two episodes in a single season, leads a list of marketers, including AdSpace Networks, Adwalker, AMC Entertainment, El Pollo Loco, GNC, The Home Depot, KB Home, Lexus, Priceline.com, Ralphs (a division of supermarket giant Kroger), Sue Bee Honey, Trina Turk and the small company SmartMouth mouthwash.

From Mediaweek:

“We are surely one of the smaller companies ever to be on the show,” said Susanne Cohen, the CEO and dentist at SmartMouth, St. Louis, which has a staff of 15. “They came to us,” she said, “This was not in our plans.” Trump said SmartMouth was a last minute replacement because NBC vetoed the online poker company that had been scheduled.

Cohen said her company, like all others, paid for its placement. Also, like the others, she declined to say how much. However it happened, she’s glad to be there and agrees with Shook about the experience. “We found these guys to be great partners,” Shook said. “We’re very excited about the upcoming season.”

Mediaweek reports that viewership has dropped from 18.5 million viewers in May 2004 to 12.8 million in December 2005. Even more distressingly, the show last season lost 41 percent of its 18-to-49-year-old audience versus the previous year.

Monopoly Enters the world of branded entertainment with "Here and Now" edition featuring brand-name tokens

The new Monopoly "Here and Now" edition of the classic board game will feature name-brand tokens, including miniature versions of a Toyota Prius hybrid car, an order of McDonald’s French fries, a New Balance running shoe, a cup of Starbucks coffee or a Motorola Razr cellphone.

Fear not, those who believe in the purity of the game, the 11 tokens in the classic version — including the battleship, cannon, iron, shoe, thimble and top hat — will remain unchanged. Stuart Elliott in The New York Times reports that the maker of Monopoly, Hasbro, says that toy stores, discount stores and other retail outlets will continue to sell the original edition of the game, based on the classic version brought out by Parker Brothers in 1935, alongside the new edition.

Here's Stuart Elliott:

The new tokens are indicative of a marketing trend known as branded entertainment, in which products are woven into the contents of popular culture including the plots of movies, television shows and novels; song lyrics; and video games.

Until now, there has been relatively little evidence of commercial trappings in traditional board games like Monopoly. The arrival of such elements worries some experts.

“It’s part of the insinuation of the commercial culture into every aspect of our lives,” said Gary Ruskin, executive director at Commercial Alert, a nonprofit organization in Portland, Ore., that seeks to curtail what it deems to be creeping commercialization.

The coming of branded tokens “turns Monopoly into a giant advertisement,” Mr. Ruskin said. “It’s a shame Hasbro has chosen to go this low road.”

Unlike advertisers that typically pay to be included in branded-entertainment projects, the five marketers whose products are becoming branded tokens did not ask Hasbro to be included in the new edition nor did they pay Hasbro a fee, Mr. Blecher said.

Rather, he said, the company sought out the marketers because their products will help the new version offer “a representation of America in the 21st century.”

“We’re recasting the entire game as if we were creating it today,” Mr. Blecher said.

Will Hollywood Style win over Madison Avenue Process in the latest fight over the future of branded entertainment and product placement?

As Hollywood collides with Madison Avenue over the latest trend of branded entertainment, it remains to be seen whether a new generation of product placement firms, notably NextMedium's Embed and Media Matchmaker, which seek to standardize such placements in TV shows and movies, can succeed in the relationship-driven entertainment business of three martini-lunches and backroom deals. MediaWeek's Inside Branded Entertainment has the skinny.