४ मार्च, २०१४

Ellen's Oscar selfie stunt was product placement...

... for Samsung.
As part of its sponsorship and ad pact for the Oscars with ABC, the TV network airing the show, Samsung and its media buying firm Starcom MediaVest negotiated to have its Galaxy smartphone integrated into the show, according to two people familiar with the matter. ABC is a unit of Walt Disney Co.
As I complained at 8:33 Central Time on the night of the show:
And they keep trying to incorporate the idea of social media — Ellen tweeting from the stage, that sort of thing. They need to keep up the grandeur or it's just incoherent and boring. Eh. We turned it off. It was sluggish and draggy. We're out....

३५ टिप्पण्या:

DKWalser म्हणाले...

Next, you're going to tell me that the pizza delivery wasn't a spur of the moment thing, either. Their improvs were written in advance and the ad libs were on cue cards. Wow!

Of course, since the program is one of the largest television events of the year, no producer in her right mind would leave much of it unscripted. The problem is that it the parts they wanted to look unplanned came off as staged. Credibly faking spontaneity is one of the most difficult things to do; with all the talent they had in that room, you'd have thought they could have done a better job of pulling it off.

Left Bank of the Charles म्हणाले...

The pizza delivery guy is an immigrant, so that was a product placement too.

Renee म्हणाले...

Bummer. People loved the selfie, and we were giving Samsung free viral advertising.

George M. Spencer म्हणाले...

The Oscars themselves are product placement for a specific industry and its products interspersed with commercials (placements) for other products and services.

The Samsung bit was placement inside of placement inside of placement.

Degeneres also used Twitter on a different brand of phone. That would be placement (Twitter) inside of placement (iPhone) inside of placement (commercials) inside of placement (the entire show itself).

And, of course, every article of attire worn by every person on screen is placement, too, as are their hair products and cosmetics.

Calling Philip K. Dick...

MayBee म्हणाले...

I would have guessed as much, because Samsung was a big advertiser during the broadcast.

I do wonder what the various celebrities think of being used for such an advertisement.

The Coke logo on the pizza box seems like something that could really tick Pepsi off. I wonder of they are going to want some money back from ABC over that.

bandmeeting म्हणाले...

What is this Oscar grandeur of which you speak?

CWJ म्हणाले...

Four comments in and we already have the thread winner.

St. George - FTW!

Watching ABC for the last decade or so has been an excersize in watch-the-cross-sell. Disney is nothing if not disciplined in promoting its products to the exclusion of nearly everything else. Unles of course, they've paid for the priveledge like Samsung here.

Robert Cook म्हणाले...

Yeah, I said that to a friend watching with me before the "selfie" interlude. I noticed Ellen had a Samsung Galaxy Note--as my friend does--and I told her, "Oh, look, she's got your phone." Not long after, they went to commercial and it was for Samsung smart phones, and I said, "Oh, that bit where she was holding the Galaxy Note was product placement for Samsung. They're a sponsor of this show."

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"What is this Oscar grandeur of which you speak?"

1. Beautiful huge stage, very glamorous.

2. Audience full of beautiful people very dressed up in formal wear and sitting still and respectful.

3. Pretension about the statuettes and the long history of handing them to beautiful people dressed and styled to the height of glamor.

4. Awards mostly given to ambitious projects with big historical themes or delving into the depths of the human psyche.

5. Swelling orchestral music connecting all the material.

6. Nominees smiling appreciatively even as they lose; winners graciously expressing admiration for losers; the thanking of God and mothers and other old-fashioned and lofty expressions scripted as appropriate and memorized and enacted on stage by actors who stay on message that this is a grand occasion.

7. Historical montages making the argument that the movie industry embodies lofty greatness through the ages.

Wince म्हणाले...

Make your money with shrewd denial...
Make it easy with product placement
Make it charged with controversy
I'm straight, I'm queer, I'm bi


King of Comedy

Make your money with a suit and tie
Make your money with shrewd denial
Make your money expert advice,
If you can wing it
Make your money with a power ply
Make your money with a buyout bribe
Make it lie as long as you mean it

I'm not king of comedy,
Grease the pig, give a squeeze (squeeze me)

Make your money with exploitation
Make it holy illumination
Say a prayer at every station
Don't forget to ask for mercy
Make your money with a pretty face
Make it easy with product placement
Make it charged with controversy
I'm straight, I'm queer, I'm bi

I'm not king of comedy,
I'm not your magazine,
I'm not your television

Make your money, make it rich
Make it young and make it quick
Make your money on the jukebox, baby,
It's pick up sticks,
Make your enemies, make your moves
Make your critics fumble through
Make it smart and make it schmooze
Make it look easy

I'm not king of comedy,
I'm not your magazine,
I'm not your television,
I'm not your movie screen
I'm not commodity (all together now)
I'm not commodity

Graham V. म्हणाले...

Little glitch in the system then.
The estate of Steven Jobs (actually, a pre-mortem trust created by him and administered by his widow, Lauraine Powell) owns/controls about 8% of Disney/ABC stock.

Wonder how that slipped through the otherwise seamless Disney cross-selling machinery.

Or, it was a really big number.

Graham V. म्हणाले...

Little glitch in the system then.
The estate of Steven Jobs (actually, a pre-mortem trust created by him and administered by his widow, Lauraine Powell) owns/controls about 8% of Disney/ABC stock.

Wonder how that slipped through the otherwise seamless Disney cross-selling machinery.

Or, it was a really big number.

MadisonMan म्हणाले...

Didn't see the selfie taken, nor any re-tweets. I guess I don't follow enough people on twitter.

As if young people are on twitter. My high schooler isn't -- it's last year.

Known Unknown म्हणाले...

I've said this before, but a 'no shit' tag would really come in handy every time you post something like this.

अनामित म्हणाले...

Limiting acceptance speeches to 140 characters would help.

Paddy O म्हणाले...

The entire Oscars is product placement. Is there a not-product placed at any point?

Paddy O म्हणाले...

"What is this Oscar grandeur of which you speak?"

"1 - 7"


Summarized: Product placement

It's an ad, from beginning to end.

George M. Spencer म्हणाले...

CWJ....Thank you.

You have won a free Samsung cell phone.

Please visit www.samsung.com and enter code: OSCAR WINNER.

Thank you, CWJ.

CWJ म्हणाले...

Hot Damn!!!

click..click..click..click..click..click..click..click.

Hmm. Its only a Galaxy 2. Oh well.

Thanks anyway.

bandmeeting म्हणाले...

I don't agree at all. Pompous is the word I would use.

FullMoon म्हणाले...

Being aware of product placement takes the fun out sometimes.

Wish I never learned of it.

Anytime you see a brand displayed, it is paid for. Ever notice that the only computer logo you see is Apple?

Here's another fun thing.Watch people smoke in film. Pretty easy to tell which are not smokers in real life.

Everybody smoked in the old movies, but many of them did not inhale. One of my favorite scenes is the wounded detective on the operating table. Him, his pal, and the doctor all smoking as the doctor removes the bullet.

William म्हणाले...

Product placement only works if you don't know it's product placement. Otherwise it's manipulative and inspires distrust of the placed product......Maybe some second tier talent, up for the supporting actor award, could pick up a few bucks by appearing on the red carpet in a NASCAR suit touting Penoil,

CWJ म्हणाले...

Graham V. wrote -

"Little glitch in the system then.
The estate of Steven Jobs (actually, a pre-mortem trust created by him and administered by his widow, Lauraine Powell) owns/controls about 8% of Disney/ABC stock.

Wonder how that slipped through the otherwise seamless Disney cross-selling machinery."

That's an interesting factoid, but it doesn't support your argument. Try again.

Scott M म्हणाले...

This really blows.

My wife and I actually had a decent talk about this picture. I made the point that there are a lot of a-listers in the shot that I saw yesterday and that a-listers are used to acting a certain way in front of a camera. There's a persona that they wear around like a costume and it slides into place when the paparazzi come in for the kill.

It seemed like, in that pic, what you had was the equivalent of a bunch of friends at a high-school dance, ie, one of their own taking a picture with their own camera. It seemed like they were just being themselves, posing for a picture for a friend in the biz. It was just a tad fun to think of these huge celebrities in this light.

My wife said they just looked like that because they were getting up after sitting on their asses for three hours.

Kind of a bummer to find out it was a PP.

Seeing Red म्हणाले...

We watched it last nite. BORING!

What is it about Hollywood? Writers everywhere and they can't write jack. Compare and contrast the loss of Sid Caesar and his merry band.

Seeing Red म्हणाले...

Jobs' DIS payout to the foundation each quarter is more than Romneys net worth I think.

Time to revisit foundation/nfl rules.

Grimstarr म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Grimstarr म्हणाले...

That selfie looked like an audition photo for the upcoming ( and I hope I'm not being prescient on this) Hollywood Blockbuster remake of "The Big Chill"
Bradley Cooper could play the role of Tom Beringer; Brad Pitt could take the Jeff Goldblum part; Meryl Streep as Glen Close; Ellen as Meg Tilley. The script is already written ... DO EEEET!

Scott M म्हणाले...

The script is already written ... DO EEEET!

I'd pay good money to see a recast, contemporary take on "Grand Canyon".

Biff म्हणाले...

A very large part of twitter's market cap and its business strategy revolves around it being seen as an essential complement (and advertising channel) to events like the Oscars. Indeed, many people already experience such events primarily through social media, rather than watching them on a television screen. Hence, you can be certain that there is a lot of money changing hands to ensure that twitter is mentioned often at the Oscars. It's a testament to the pervasiveness of twitter that these mentions are not usually recognized as what they are: paid product placements.

Sigivald म्हणाले...

They need to keep up the grandeur or it's just incoherent and boring.

You mean the Oscars aren't boring, in potentia?

Reject the entire Oscar paradigm.

Edmund म्हणाले...

Anytime you see a brand displayed, it is paid for. Ever notice that the only computer logo you see is Apple?

Not always. Some stuff is paid placement, some not. Apple usually supplies free products for placement and allows the production to keep the gear afterwards, where the crew buys it at a discount. Cars are often provided by the manufacturer, but go back to them afterwards. If the cast eats fast food onscreen or drinks a particular beverage, it was probably a paid placement, though.

However, some stuff is just copyright cleared by the legal staff. My brother worked on an upcoming film that shot some scenes on location in a restaurant. He had to provide photos of all the art and logo items on the walls so they could get clearance from the trademark/copyright holders. They didn't get it on a few items and he had to cover them up or take them down.

(Oh, he's worked with 4 of the Oscar winners from the other night - Emmanuel Lubezki, Spike Jonze, Brad Pitt, Matthew McConaughey)

अनामित म्हणाले...

News flash! Someone acting like a lesbian dressed as a man sells out! One would have thought that such a person had more personal integrity.

Fernandinande म्हणाले...

I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener,
That is what I'd truly like to be.

And if I were an Oscar Mayer wiener,
Everyone would be in love with me.

Fernandinande म्हणाले...

I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener,
That is what I'd truly like to be.

And if I were an Oscar Mayer wiener,
Everyone would be in love with me.