The Ads: They Just Keep Running

Beware, TV viewers, you’re being deluged by advertisements without even knowing it.

For example, on "American Idol," Simon and his cohorts wear Coke-inscribed glasses. Campbell’s Soup is served on NBC’s "American Dreams." And in "The Apprentice," episode-length challenges are created for such sponsors as Burger King, Mattel toys and Crest toothpaste.

These are all examples of product placements, where, as Associated Press TV writer Frazier Moore so aptly put it, "commercial breaks still come and go but the commercials never end."

Indeed, we’re being overrun by covert commercials that are cleverly tucked into story lines. And it’s getting bigger and bigger, notes Moore, bringing much-needed attention to this unsettling phenomenon.

In 2004, Moore explains, "the value of television product placements (a product or brand name inserted for marketing purposes into entertainment fare) increased by for marketing purposes into entertainment fare) increased by 46.4 percent over the year before, to $1.88 billion," according to the research firm PQ Media.

"I think product placements can be deceptive, because most viewers don’t realize they’re really advertisements," FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein told the AP.

"That’s why there’s a law that requires disclosure. The question is: How well are we enforcing it?"

Very good question.

In fact, Commercial Alert had the right idea nearly two years ago, when the non-profit advocacy group petitioned the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commissionto require full disclosure of product placement.

But in February 2005, the FTC turned down the organization’s proposal.

Even so, in late Mary 2005, Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein spoke out against product placement in a speech before the Media Institute in Washington, D.C. Sounds promising.

Something needs to usdone to warn unsuspecting TV watchers that they’re being convinced on a subliminal level to buy burgers, soda, toys, cars, appliances, and more.

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