New York magazine has an article out this week generating a lot of new discussion on the role of product placement and TV shows in the new media economy. Leave it to Gawker and New York to revive a question we asked last November:
As we consider issues like shifting ad dollars from television into online, do we need to worry about ad agencies having to compete with real talent agencies like William Morris as well? They’ve got a digital department too. Who leads the strategy here?
And with network ad dollars declining how do you keep critically acclaimed, high quality TV programs on the air without the ratings? Now New York has Joss Whedon railing against new forms of advertising like American Express Podbusters, the short unrelated 30 Rock segments that aired right before commercial breaks. “We invest in the reality of the show! And this is one of the ways they’re picking apart the idea of the narrative, keeping you from knowing if it’s a show or not.”
On the other side is Amalgamated co-founder Charles Rosen, the guy credited with partnering Stephen Colbert up with Ben & Jerry’s for Americone Dream. “You know what? Just do a better job integrating!” he tells New York “If you’re really an artist, go fucking paint a picture or write a book or do something that’s fully about art. My realization in the film business was it was not about art.”
So how much of your favorite show’s reality are you willing to give up to keep it on the air? As One Tree Hill executive producer Joe Davola puts it “If your show is struggling, and it wasn’t one of the top-twenty shows, and this would keep it on the air, what would you do?”