Should viewers be told about product integration in shows?
Interesting piece over at Nikki Finke’s site. While everyone is concentrating on a possible actors strike (the deadline is Monday for SAG to make an agreement), there’s another little controversy going on. The Writers Guild of America West has asked the FCC to look into the ever-increasing habit of product integration in network shows. Not only does the WGA want to see the use of products on television eased up, which the FCC is already looking into, they also want to go one step further and make viewers fully aware that they are seeing an ad.
And how would the networks do that?
The WGA wants “real-time” disclosure, which basically means they want to see a crawl at the bottom of the screen when product placement is happening in a scene, similar to crawls for sports scores, weather, other news, and ads for other shows. They want to see this during the show because they don’t feel a disclosure at the start or end of a show would be as noticeable or as effective.
Part of me fully understands why viewers should know it’s a paid ad they’re seeing (though I would hope viewers would know that already), however, a crawl in the middle of a TV show seems like a weird idea.
What do you think of this idea? Do you already assume that it’s an ad when you see someone talking about Snapple or a cool car on a TV show? What should the networks do to tell viewers, if anything?
Why Hollywood Can’t Make a Grand Theft Auto Movie
Because everyone has been wondering, Nikki Finke explains why Hollywood probably won’t make Grand Theft Auto: The Movie. In its first week, Grand Theft Auto IV sold approximately 6 million copies worldwide and grossed over $500 million, more than most movies make theatrically. So it seems only logical that Hollywood would be interested in bringing the the controversial video game series to the mainstream. As it turns out, Fox Atomic actually owns the rights to “Grand Theft Auto”, but not a film based on the game. Atomic is developing a remake of the Ron Howard directed / Roger Corman produced film with the same name from 1977. And by “developing”, we mean that it is one of hundreds of projects that Fox Atomic has sitting around waiting for a screenwriter.
And I’ve never heard this before, but Finke claims that a legal settlement dictates that Fox can’t make a video game out of the Ron Howard film, and more importantly, Rockstar isn’t allowed to make a feature film based on their video game series. And as much as fans of the game would love to see a big screen movie, I’m not sure that it could capture the free-roaming magic of the game. Besides, many aspects of the game series are closely inspired by the classic mob films. I even remember reading interviews with Rockstar where they admit this obvious fact. What’s to stop a big screen adaptation of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City or Grand Theft Auto 4 from feeling like a Scarface rip-off?
FTW: Eddie Murphy’s Head Entertains L.A. Commuters. Meet Dave to Out-Suck Love Guru?
Doc’s De Lorean. KITT. Tony Stark’s Audi R8. Eddie Murphy’s Head. Dream Vehicles. In a Hail Mary for the ages, 20th Century Fox has that thing above cruising around the West Coast in hopes that it will make people pay to see Murphy in next month’s mini-alien bonanza, Meet Dave. I saw the trailer for this $100 million movie a couple nights ago while sunburnt/drunk, and convinced myself without any trouble that it was the sequel to The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Potential Epic FAIL brewing: Love Guru, prepare to be the catcher. Sidenote: I’m not a fan of nightmarish car crashes, but the images filling my head right now are worthy of eight Shane Black clones.
A studio rep nicely justified its existence today to an elated Nikki Finke…
“Yeah, but it’s a lot cheaper and greener than flying Eddie around on a private jet for a press tour.”
Moonlight isn’t done yet…
Moonlight is not going to just go away quietly and join that long list of one-and-done shows. People keep saying it’s over, but apparently not everyone is listening. The latest rumor, from Nikki Finke’s blog, has the show landing at the CW. And how would that work, considering that the CW has already made their schedule? I’m glad you asked.
You may recall a post from a few days ago about the network throwing in the towel on Sunday nights. That has now been confirmed with their upfront announcements. Sundays have now been outsourced. Moonlight comes back into the picture as a possibility to fill one of those two hours for Media Rights Capital, the new programmers for Sunday nights. If they could get even 60 to 70 percent of the show’s viewers to make the move with them, it could be the most watched show on the network. Something that sounds very plausible given the loyal following the show has developed. It’s still firmly in long-shot territory, but has the makings of quite a story.