A ‘P’ coming to your TV screen soon
In the US product placement has been an integral part of TV viewing for many years with, for example, regular appearances for Coca Cola on American Idol, and Oreos in Friends. Now we learn that paid-for product placement is about to hit UK televisions and, in a very British fashion, our version will sport a highly visible ‘P’, helping viewers to distinguish paid-for product placement from anything else. From next week onwards, when a P appears on the screen, we’ll know that someone has paid to have the Heinz soup or Vodafone handset in our favourite soap and that it’s not necessarily the case that the character actually loves the brand of baked beans.
For those of us in the UK public relations industry, product placement has been in our toolbox for an age, usually dressed-up as prop supply. So, what does the future now hold for the likes of BMW who, for years, have enjoyed free ‘prop provision’ in series like Silent Witness? Surely if this practice is to continue, a P must be shown, or the unwitting British public may be lead to believe that the BMW 5 is Dr Nikki Alexander’s personal car of choice.
P issues aside, the good news for the UK public is that restrictions on product placement will remain in place for tobacco, alcohol, gambling, and foods or drinks that are high in fat, salt or sugar – we wouldn’t want anyone thinking that Phil Mitchell chooses Jack Daniels over Scotch. Promotion of medicines and baby milk will also be banned under the P, along with weapons and escort agencies.
For radio there can be no on-screen P, so Ofcom has dictated that product promotion must be distinct from editorial in the form of distinctive advertising. This will come as a blow to the royal family who, believing that P stands for Prince, scored a product placement bulls eye in final Archers of the series with a Duchy Originals shortbread reference which sent a sales ‘surge’ through Waitrose.