Product Placement in MITM

As a family so poor it is ridiculous, I am surprised they have brand name anything. Remember the episode where they worked in the church thrift shop, they were replacing all their crap with stuff people donated (at least until they started selling it). Where is this church that has the sweet loot? Beverly Hills? Hal getting busted by the cop trying to sell stuff to empty the car before lois drove past.....hilarious.
 

samboo1

New member
Yeah, i never thought of it that way. They dont seem wealthy enough to have main branded clothes, like puma.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
They were never wealthy, per se, but remember they were never in all that much financial trouble before Hal got indicted.
 
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we_dye

Guest
Good evening everyone. I have not posted on here for a while. I hope all is well!

I am not sure how it works with US TV shows, but in UK, it is illegal to promote products within a fictional discourse. Product placements such as the sneaker and fruit juice brands can be allowed as they are visually incidental. However, as the board game was part of the episode's plot; the charaters refering to it by name would break the then ITC's code of conduct. It certainly would have been banned from UK television.

ITC (now part of OFCOM) fined the producers of the soap opera Coronation Street because there was a scene in the newsagent where one of the characters puchased a chocolate bar. The show was sponsored by Cadbury at the time. During the dialogue, the camera focussed on the Cadbury branded chocolate bar for more than five seconds and ruled it was therefore unjustified advertising.

Of course, in movies it is a totally different ball game. Producers can do just about anything they want. A famous example would be Fedex being a major part of the plot in Castaway. This can never be allowede in a TV show.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Definitely not the same here. There's a new advertising trend that I call subliminal advertising--it's actually called interleaved advertising or something like that--where companies actually pay to have their products featured on fictional TV shows. If it were to get popular enough they could nix commercials altogether.
 
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Deleted member 1693

Guest
Definitely not the same here. There's a new advertising trend that I call subliminal advertising--it's actually called interleaved advertising or something like that--where companies actually pay to have their products featured on fictional TV shows. If it were to get popular enough they could nix commercials altogether.

Well, shoe brands are harder to fake and mask than a label and a few game pieces slapped in there. :D
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Good evening everyone. I have not posted on here for a while. I hope all is well!

I am not sure how it works with US TV shows, but in UK, it is illegal to promote products within a fictional discourse. Product placements such as the sneaker and fruit juice brands can be allowed as they are visually incidental. However, as the board game was part of the episode's plot; the charaters refering to it by name would break the then ITC's code of conduct. It certainly would have been banned from UK television.

ITC (now part of OFCOM) fined the producers of the soap opera Coronation Street because there was a scene in the newsagent where one of the characters puchased a chocolate bar. The show was sponsored by Cadbury at the time. During the dialogue, the camera focussed on the Cadbury branded chocolate bar for more than five seconds and ruled it was therefore unjustified advertising.

Of course, in movies it is a totally different ball game. Producers can do just about anything they want. A famous example would be Fedex being a major part of the plot in Castaway. This can never be allowede in a TV show.

Product placement could be coming to the UK soon.

However a US show would have product placement for a US audience therefore it would not matter if it was showed in the UK. No MITM episode have been 'banned' in the UK.
 
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we_dye

Guest
No MITM episode have been 'banned' in the UK.

...However, UK audiences have made complaints to OFCOM about some scenes of MITM. As a result, some scenes have been edited and/removed when they are shown on Sky. The most recent case is on this link (the last one on the page):
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/prog_cb/pcb32/

I don't think I have seen this episode, as I don't recall such a scene with a plastic cover. What is the episode title? Can anyone verify if it was as bad as it sounds?
 
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Deleted member 1693

Guest
...They called it a drama :D

Anyway, the cold open was in "Army Buddy". Season 7, Episode 8. If you think about it too long, it can seem a little creepy.
 
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we_dye

Guest
...They called it a drama :D

Anyway, the cold open was in "Army Buddy". Season 7, Episode 8. If you think about it too long, it can seem a little creepy.

Thanks for taking the time to provide that info. I'll have to look out for the Army Buddy episode; albeit the US (unedited) version.

As for MITM being referred to as a drama. I find that funny too. It gives a real sense that the OFCOM panel have no real familiarity to the TV shows they are reporting on. They investigate the episodes in which persons have complained about, but I don't think from the ruling that they are frequent viewers.

BTW, I like your signature pic. Did you draw that yourself? Who is it and how do you get it on computer? If you can draw freehand using a mouse, you have real talent. :)

@tjpeople - I just read the timesonline article in full. Thanks for sharing. That sounds sad to me. It would seem that our commercial media is heading in the US direction. We are already subjected to advertising on a frequent basis; now product placements in fictional genred TV shows is a step too far.; When will it all end?
 
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Deleted member 1693

Guest
Yes, I did draw it myself. :)

It's based on this avatar from gaiaonline.com (an anime social networking site): http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee170/luckymaroon/luckyav.png

I used Adobe Photoshop CS2 and drew my lineart over a sketch I made earlier. Then I colored it using the same program later. All on the computer.

If you want me to draw something, just request it (and provide reference, of course)!
 

AlexTheMartian

New member
...However, UK audiences have made complaints to OFCOM about some scenes of MITM. As a result, some scenes have been edited and/removed when they are shown on Sky. The most recent case is on this link (the last one on the page):
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/prog_cb/pcb32/

I don't think I have seen this episode, as I don't recall such a scene with a plastic cover. What is the episode title? Can anyone verify if it was as bad as it sounds?

but that has nothing to do with product placement. and i rather have an edited show then no show at all.
 

cadmiumgold

New member
thats so wierd. I was watching army buddy on sky one yesterday and when there was no teaser I wondered if in season 7 they stopped them to make the episodes longer, but obviously not. I don't see why they would make them cut it really, the UK is a bit stricter on these things I spose.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
...However, UK audiences have made complaints to OFCOM about some scenes of MITM. As a result, some scenes have been edited and/removed when they are shown on Sky.

That sucks. What are they complaining about? (that link says the page is unavailable)
 

cadmiumgold

New member
It says that when Hal tries to show the dangers of suffocating to Jamie by suffocating himself with a plastic bag it sends out a bad message to little kids.

Sky argued it was sending out the message it was bad so they wouldn't do it but added that it was supposed to have been removed but due to human error was not.

I think it was a bit of a fuss over something that was showing the bad side so wasn't posing a threat, I mean MITM often uses darker humour in that way cos they want to push boundaries. I spose some people don't get that. And anyway there are like a billion more kids living in the US than the UK, yet they didn't edit it out there and no one got hurt!
 
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Deleted member 1693

Guest
Lol, it's not like kids are going to throw bags over unsuspecting parents' faces. Most adults can get a bag off of their face. At least I hope so.
 

Lozart

New member
In company picnic, Dewey played with pokemon cards =]

I've seen reese wear american eagle shirts. Although it doesn't look like the ones today, it clearly says it on his shirt :)

In Jessica Stays Over, Dewey was playing a gameboy color, even though there wasn't a game in there :tongue:

In one of the cold opens, they were having a family dinner and the boys were drinking kool-aid and Hal was drinking a diet pepsi. Lois was drinking either a glass of water or sprite.

I also remember in an episode that Lois was having a feud against Luigi's pizza.
It looked so good =(
 
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