• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 12, 2007

Maybe for TV newscasts the terms "branded entertainment," "product placement," or even "slanted news story" is just dancing around a controversial subject. Be frank. Call it "stealth advertising."

At least, this is what University of Oregon researchers are calling the activity where commercial messages are "cloaked in some other garment than a normal commercial." University researchers did a study of 17 small-market television newscasts for four months in 2004.

The interesting result, they say, is that this "stealth advertising" is growing at the same rate as that of viewers who use digital video recorders to skip commercials. Other research has shown that viewers skip commercials around 65% to 75% of the time.

The University study found that 90% of nearly 300 monitored newscasts included at least one instance per newscast of stealth advertising. Researchers counted 750 instances, about 2.5 individual "stealth advertisements" per newscast.

If the rise of stealth advertising comes at the same rate as DVR commercial skipping, does this mean it was premeditated -- as if marketers were aware of the problem and needed some balance in this fractionalized media world? Or, is it just a crazy coincidence?

The researchers don't seem to come down on either side of the question.

Well, we've all heard the problems concerning video press releases. Critics say these "VPRs" should be identified when they air -- to be honest with viewers.

But this University of Oregon study didn't seem to pass judgment on any TV news or station executives. Instead, it says that viewers should become more "media literate" to become aware of when they are being manipulated.

All that would seem to foster a strong free-market principle: If you see too much of this activity in newscasts, you'll eventually just turn the channel to something else. After a while a TV newscast will get low ratings, then low advertising dollars, and, happily for some, maybe even quietly go out of business.

Call it "stealth programming."