Burnham spurns product placement

by Fiona Ramsay, Media Week 11-Jun-08, 14:15

LONDON - Culture secretary Andy Burnham today spoke out against legalising product placement on TV, warning that such a move would damage programmes.

Speaking at a Department for Culture Media and Sport Culture Convergence Think Tank seminar, Burnham argued that, in the current TV environment, "there are some lines that we should not cross - one of which is that you can buy the space between the programmes on commercial channels, but not the space within them".

Burnham said there was a risk that product placement, currently banned under Ofcom's regulatory code, "contaminates our programmes".

"As a viewer, I don't want to feel the script has been written by the commercial marketing director," he said. "If Jim Royle gets out of his chair for a Kit Kat, I want to think, 'he fancies a Kit Kat' - not, 'Kit Kat my arse!'. If I thought it was because someone has paid for him to eat one, it would change the way I felt about the programme."

The Government, via the DCMS, is obliged by law to consult on legalising product placement on TV. European Union member states are required to do so by the Audio Visual Media Services Directive, by 19 December 2009.

Burnham told the Convergence Think Tank, set up to examine the implications of technological development for the media and communications industries, that he could "see the benefits of product placement and understand why people feel it is an inevitability given the pressures they are under".

But he argued: "There is a risk that, at the very moment when television needs to do all it can to show it can be trusted, that we elide the distinction between programmes and adverts."

His comments are likely to shock the advertising industry and broadcasters, who have been pushing for the legalisation of product placement as TV ad spend is fragmented among the mounting number of digital TV broadcasters.

Rupert Howell, ITV managing director of brand and commercial, said the broadcaster was pushing for product placement rules to be changed.

"Product placement adds to the authenticity of a programme, just as it does in films. The issue is sitting in Andy Burnham's in-tray and we would expect rules to come into effect next year."

Comments

Colin Donald - 11/06/2008

And the unintended consequence is to give a boost to Web shows, where product integration is not regulated and well-established.

Frank Zazza - 11/06/2008

This is insane saying product placement will “contaminate programs” kind of harsh. Actually the more Andy Burnham uses this type of terminology the less credence he will have. I believe that these types of statements are made with unwarranted knowledge with no idea of ramifications to the public and private sectors forcing job security in a plummeting economy. – However the good news is that viewers minds will not be contaminate by a Coke can in a TV program. "Regulators" should help "regulate" and work with the advertisers, broadcasters, and markertes to get product placement right. To simply dismiss the the opportunity without first trying to 'regulate" the pros vrs. cons is a political self-serving "safe" position to take on this matter

Calum Chace - 11/06/2008

The minister did say he was new to his post (4 months), and was willing to listen to the arguments. And the arguments for placement are compelling. Viewers prefer not to have their viewing interrupted, and they increasingly have ways to avoid it. Done well, placement enhances a show. And it is in no-body's interest ina sophisticated TV ecology to do it badly.