• by Mike Bloxham , Op-Ed Contributor, June 25, 2008

If you listen carefully, you can hear the not-so-distant sound of hysterical agenda-driven pressure groups marshalling the Federal Communications Commission about the perceived dangers of what they are calling "embedded advertising" (read product placement), particularly that which reaches children.

More ominously, this is accompanied by the usual signs of the FCC falling into line with the sociopolitical concerns of these groups. Next will come the usual suspects -- in the form of politicians -- seeing an election-year bandwagon to climb aboard, and then all reason can be dispatched to the four winds.

Don't get me wrong. I'm no apologist for all forms of advertising and have my own views on what is and is not appropriate (I'm a parent, too!). But once again, I fear we will soon be embarking on another round of hearings, more hearings and pronouncements that will seek to shake down (or at least appear to shake down) the product placement sector -- all on the basis of predetermined opinion and vested interests.

The pressure groups will lobby from a purely ideological position, which will be supported by expert opinion and -- possibly -- dodgy research, while advertisers, agencies and media owners will do their best to defend their patch on a similar basis. The advertisers, of course, will have a harder time of it, as organizations like The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Parents Television Council lay claim to the moral high ground (which does not sit well with me when -- in the case of the PTC -- they orchestrate boycotts of advertisers who so much as allude to gay and lesbian lifestyles in the commercials. But then social discrimination has never seemed particularly moral to my way of thinking.)

For something of such social and economic importance, media should not be messed with in so cavalier a fashion. By all means look at the issue. After all, we don't really know a great deal about efficacy, and we do have a childhood obesity issue to address in this country -- and marketing does have a role in both the problem and the solution. But then so does parenting -- and personally, I'd like to see these pressure groups taking a more constructive role in encouraging that side of the equation.

So if we are going to get into this issue -- and it seems that we are -- PLEASE, can we do so responsibly and with reference to some objective research and insight? Maybe a good first step would be to delay further formal discussion at the FCC until after the election.