Lost in the Plot

I came across this article over the weekend (a quiet day at work can yeild unexpected finds!) about advertising and its increasingly undisclosed presence in everything we watch on tv.

You Can’t Avoid the Commercials – CNN.com Article

Its a very interesting topic, but also very alarming to consider the hidden psychological impact that such advertising can have. It made me think of the popular American show “Gilmore Girls”, which was developed with financial and creative input from the “The Family Friendly Programming Forum’s Script Development Initiative”. Sound suspect? No, it’s not an ultra-conservative Christian group (close), it’s an association of 45 large multinational corporations. They started the Initiative to help shape TV shows that would be friendly to their target customer demographic, ultimately to place their products into in order to sell things or at least build brand recognition with unsespecting viewers.

Wondering what car they drive on Gilmore girls. Or what shampoo they use. Or why there was that plotline about x product? It’s probably all thanks to these companies and more who paid to create the show:

AT&T Corporation, FedEx Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s Corporation, Merck & Company, Inc., Nationwide Insurance and Financial Services, Pfizer Inc (includes Warner-Lambert Consumer Group), The Procter & Gamble Company, Tyson Foods, Inc., Unilever United States, Inc. and Wendy’s International, Inc.

More disturbing information can be found at the Association of National Advertisiers Site:

“The Family Friendly Programming Forum’s Script Development Initiative”

A relevant media release from the ABC regarding one of their kids properties, Active Kidz.

Let’s hope the comments in the CNN article concerning adequate disclosure are the beginning of a broader discussion of the issue.