• by March 30, 2005

By Hank Kim and Richard Linnett

If there were any lingering doubts that scripted producers were open to dressing up a scene with an advertiser's product, a recent episode in which a Buick LaCrosse appears in ABC's "Desperate Housewives" should go a long way in putting that myth to rest.

The desperate Gabrielle  played by Eva Longoria  takes a job hawking the LaCrosse at a local mall to make ends meet while her husband languishes in jail. We counted at least five brand mentions and attribute descriptions delivered by Longoria, including one by the sleazy agent who gets her the gig.

And there is a brilliant encounter in the mall when Gabrielle, dolled up in a satin gown, standing in front of the gleaming vehicle revolving on a pedestal, tries to avoid her neighbor, Lynette, in the mall. "What are you doing here?" asks Lynette, who incredulously eyes Gabrielle's outré outfit. "I'm just looking at the Buick LaCrosse," Gabrielle says. "I just love this car. It's so sleek&" And she proceeds, deliciously, to mention the brand attributes.

One can imagine the show's creator Marc Cherry and his writers hooting it up while writing this hilarious scene, a self-referential in-joke about product placement. Thank goodness General Motors has a sense of humor. In our opinion, this is one of the best product placements since Reese's Pieces appeared in "e.t.," and it's in the most popular scripted show on tv, no less. The LaCrosse integration serves as a paradigm of what's possible when brands, networks, and producers all buy into the possibility and vision of a "meaningful" brand integration.

It sends a clear message, writ large, that it's actually not any harder, creatively speaking, to integrate products without jeopardizing creative integrity, than it is into reality shows. The challenge, at this stage of the game, has been getting the creatives on board.

So if Mr. Cherry, Hollywood's current golden boy, embraces the form with such wit and enthusiasm, there's no reason why producers, who wield the kind of clout on the scripted side that Mark Burnett does on the reality side, can't help pioneer these new models.

The networks are also beginning to see the value in these types of integrations. Over the past six months, the broadcast networks are more determined than ever to leverage their top properties as a means of extracting alternate revenue streams. And advertisers are eager to pay the six- to seven-figure premium for water-cooler hits, whereas with marginal programming, they're still offended  and justifiably so  if the product placements aren't thrown in gratis to sweeten the pot on the media buy.

And of course, the individual producers and the production studios want a piece of the action, as well. One network executive told us not too long ago how charging integration fees could open up a whole new pandora's box that could create new tensions in the production and network communities. In the next breath, he said he was certain that they would move forward anyway. These kinds of integrations can only be executed if there is commitment on all sides, with everyone taking an ownership stake in the process. So in that context, the producers and the studios are right. They should get a percentage too.

Our prediction: we will soon see a brand entering into this kind of deal with a network/studio for scripted tv programming, going beyond last year's abc/MindShare pact that led to "The Days." The deal may already be in the works. And, in part, we may have the beautiful Gabrielle to thank for it.

Hank Kim and Richard Linnett are directors of MPG Entertainment. (hank.kim@mpg.com and richard.linnett@mpg.com)