Product Displacement: Brands That Don't Pay Don't Get To Play

More and more, product placement gurus and network and production executives have been facing the question of what to do about items and logos that have not paid to participate--whether to block them out or ignore them, thereby giving a product free advertising.

Actually, the dilemma is invariably solved by "pixilating" (blurry boxes that blend in with the background) otherwise known as "greeking" (a reference to the use of unreadable dummy text when prototyping the design or general layout of pages in magazines, books, or brochures) the unwanted product.

But some industry professionals note that greeking may do more to highlight and promote the unwelcome marketers within a show--particularly reality shows, which value spontaneity and seemingly authentic experiences.

Currently, some are talking about using the services of companies like Princeton Video Image--a Lawrenceville, N.J. production house that often digitally inserts advertising into live sports events--to do the same for reality shows. The company has recently been hired to digitally insert products into old episodes of "Friends," which is enjoying high ratings in syndication.

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So far, most industry insiders shrug, and are willing to simply pixilate and let the chips fall where they may, as to whether the audience will pay more or less attention to it.

"There's no perfect way of dealing with this problem," said Tom Weeks, associate director of Publicis Groupe's Starcom Entertainment. "For example, have you ever been to a strip club? Well, not that I frequent them beyond the occasional bachelor party--but in Chicago, strip club dancers can't be completely topless; they have to wear pasties. Now, you could call that an imperfect solution to that problem, but we all know what's under those pasties. It's the same thing when you see a red can with white stripes--it's a Coca-Cola can--but if you can't completely remove it, a producer that doesn't want it shown isn't going to give Coke any more benefit than he has to."

As for the networks, most Standards & Practices say there are generally no hard-and-fast rules about what is pixilated, except for such images or words that might be considered indecent.

"We have no specific policy on this issue," said a Fox spokeswoman, while a CBS spokesman said "that it's a case-by-case basis, but that indeed many times unintentional product placement will get 'greeked' out in the production process--usually on the programming side, not the network policy side."

Still, another network spokesperson said flatly: "The bottom line is that if it's not a paid integration, and the product name is clearly visible, it is pixilated out."

Primarily, as one network executive put it, greeking is akin to a clothing store magnet that squirts indelible ink on an item if someone steals it and later tries to remove the magnet: the item won't be good to the store anymore, but at least the thief won't be able to take advantage of his theft.

"Increasingly, networks are recognizing the value not only of their sales inventory--and greeking is a way of ensuring there's no tangible benefit that can be used by an unsolicited advertiser; the appearance is effectively worthless in terms of promotion," said Frances Page, principal, strategy, and business affairs for Magna Global Entertainment.

"Having a product appear with the context of a show is a commodity that people are assigning value to. The difficulty comes in what value is being assigned. That's the question of the year for many industry minds: how do you assign value to something that's really more about impact than about rating points? And for something that shouldn't be on-screen in the first place, how do you effectively devalue it? Right now, greeking is the best way."

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