TJL
01-11-2005, 07:47 PM
Am I the only one who finds this disturbing?
'Housewives' drives home ad
By MARISA GUTHRIE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The mention of a new model from Buick in Sunday night's "Desperate Housewives" was not a coincidence. Rather, it was a carefully planned piece of product placement.
The scene involved Gabrielle (Eva Longoria), who is forced to take a modeling job to earn money while her husband languishes in jail. She accepts a job at a mall as the spokesmodel for the Buick LaCrosse.
"When ["Desperate Housewives'" writers] were developing the plot line, this opportunity came up and they gave us a call," said Jill Cooley, advertising and promotions manager for Buick.
"There was an opportunity in the plot line in the script for a vehicle, and they asked us if we would be interested in that," said Cooley. "And of course we were interested."
Writers asked for "talking points," said Cooley, one of which was repeated by Longoria's character.
But, said Cooley, "no money changed hands" for the scene, which had Gabrielle reluctantly extolling the car while dressed in a blue sequined evening gown.
"We don't pay for product placement like that," said Cooley. "It's part of the ongoing relationship we have with the show."
That relationship includes providing a fleet of cars to the "Desperate Housewives" set for free.
The series has already shown characters driving the Buick Rendezvous, and future episodes will have them tooling around in Buick's new SUV, the Terraza.
"We supply them with vehicles," said Cooley, "and they were nice enough to take us into consideration."
A producer for the show referred questions to ABC. An ABC spokeswoman did not comment.
Product placement on television is nothing new. It's a regular feature of reality series including "Survivor" and "The Apprentice," and it has become more common in scripted shows. But writing a specific product into the script - and then mentioning that product's benefits - is not as common.
"It's very rare to be so tightly integrated," admitted Cooley.
Indeed, it was the first time one of Buick's cars has been mentioned by name on "Desperate Housewives."
"We don't want it to feel stilted or forced," said Cooley. "We want it to flow naturally within the show."
Buick does buy conventional advertising on "Desperate Housewives." Sunday night's episode featured two spots for the LaCrosse.
With more than 20 million people tuning in to "Desperate Housewives" each week, those spots cost millions of dollars.
Sunday night, Buick landed a spot viewers weren't likely not to click away from. And it's hard to put a price on that kind of advertising.
Originally published on January 11, 2005
'Housewives' drives home ad
By MARISA GUTHRIE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The mention of a new model from Buick in Sunday night's "Desperate Housewives" was not a coincidence. Rather, it was a carefully planned piece of product placement.
The scene involved Gabrielle (Eva Longoria), who is forced to take a modeling job to earn money while her husband languishes in jail. She accepts a job at a mall as the spokesmodel for the Buick LaCrosse.
"When ["Desperate Housewives'" writers] were developing the plot line, this opportunity came up and they gave us a call," said Jill Cooley, advertising and promotions manager for Buick.
"There was an opportunity in the plot line in the script for a vehicle, and they asked us if we would be interested in that," said Cooley. "And of course we were interested."
Writers asked for "talking points," said Cooley, one of which was repeated by Longoria's character.
But, said Cooley, "no money changed hands" for the scene, which had Gabrielle reluctantly extolling the car while dressed in a blue sequined evening gown.
"We don't pay for product placement like that," said Cooley. "It's part of the ongoing relationship we have with the show."
That relationship includes providing a fleet of cars to the "Desperate Housewives" set for free.
The series has already shown characters driving the Buick Rendezvous, and future episodes will have them tooling around in Buick's new SUV, the Terraza.
"We supply them with vehicles," said Cooley, "and they were nice enough to take us into consideration."
A producer for the show referred questions to ABC. An ABC spokeswoman did not comment.
Product placement on television is nothing new. It's a regular feature of reality series including "Survivor" and "The Apprentice," and it has become more common in scripted shows. But writing a specific product into the script - and then mentioning that product's benefits - is not as common.
"It's very rare to be so tightly integrated," admitted Cooley.
Indeed, it was the first time one of Buick's cars has been mentioned by name on "Desperate Housewives."
"We don't want it to feel stilted or forced," said Cooley. "We want it to flow naturally within the show."
Buick does buy conventional advertising on "Desperate Housewives." Sunday night's episode featured two spots for the LaCrosse.
With more than 20 million people tuning in to "Desperate Housewives" each week, those spots cost millions of dollars.
Sunday night, Buick landed a spot viewers weren't likely not to click away from. And it's hard to put a price on that kind of advertising.
Originally published on January 11, 2005