NV on Bridezillas - Awkward Product Placement
My husband occasionally is away for the evening for work/networking/etc. About once a month Charlie and I have one of “our nights”. Usually I go to the gym, come back, and watch a marathon of TV shows that I’ve DRV’d that Chris would never in a million years watch with me. My lineup consists of America’s Next Top Model, Bridezillas, Project Runway, or whatever is being shown on HGTV. While I watch these shows Charlie shoves his toys under the couch and cries for me to get them out for him. I’m employing the “cry it out” method right now to practice for when kids come. Man, it’s tough. This dog cries real tears. And he’s pretty darn cute too. Imagine giving this guy the brush off.
Not easy.
So this week it was a marathon of Bridezillas for me. Now I know that this show is completely mindless, but hey, even I have standards for the crap I watch on TV.
In one of the first episodes I noticed that they were spending a lot of time narrating about the weight of the bride. The next thing I know, there is a close up of the NV bottle and the bride is doing somewhat of a commercial for the product. How she feels, that she looks better, that she’s lost 9 pounds in a short period of time….um….where is my ranting raving bridezilla? Why is she not freaking out that her flowers are the wrong shade of pink or whatever. That’s what I came to see people. What the heck is this? Why am I watching her all happy working out with a trainer decked out in NV gear and asking her how much she likes the product? We go to commercial, and we are back to our mad and crying bride. Only now I am thinking maybe she’s so cranky because she is on some diet pill.
Go ahead a couple of episodes, and we meet a new bride. Out of nowhere she and her fiance decide to go to the beach. She goes into the bathroom, puts on her bathing suit, freaks out, comes out in a towel and says she’s not going anymore, she hates her body, etc. Then with her wrapped in the same towel she’s giving her interview about how unhappy she is with her weight, and we get the closeup of the NV bottle again, and she’s off to the same gym, and there’s that guy again in all of the NV gear. Later we see her at her cake tasting refusing to actually swallow a piece of cake and spitting everything out into a napkin.
Something is off. I do a search and learn that:
“The network’s ad sales team also sold a first-time package to diet supplement brand NV across all 18 episodes of Bridezillas this season. The deal, which also includes custom vignettes, tagged tune-in spots, on-air billboards, online banners and placement in WE TV on demand, features product integration in four installments of the show.”
Listen. I get it. I fast forward through the commercials (love you DVR - one of the best inventions EVER), I wouldn’t know about NV if it weren’t for this product placement, but it’s just so awkward and contributes nothing to the storyline of the show whatsoever. Look at Project Runway or ANTM and how they do it. We’ve got the wall of accessories that is sponsored, we’ve got sponsored contests, but it makes sense within the damn storyline already.
I was a bride. I stepped up the workouts and had more willpower to watch what I ate leading up to that day, perfect target audience for this show. But the implementation is not good. It just sticks out like a sore thumb.
What about a few befores and afters on the brides? Maybe do full disclosure and have the brides say that part of the reason they are doing the show is to have a chance to try the product. At the very least, having someone taking the product and then flipping out on their loved ones and making everybody around them miserable doesn’t really shine that great a light on NV. I know that product placement is here to stay, but just like bad social promotion, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.
Any other examples of some bad product placement you guys can think of?
December 21st, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Great observation- love that you were so disappointed that you looked into it.
Very interesting read.
December 21st, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Thanks! I may watch bad tv but I definitely do have standards for my bad tv. LOL.