Two recent developments have highlighted to me that we are
in a brave new world of advertising.
The first is that Pepsi is passing on the Superbowl this year. After 23 years of providing ads that drew more commentary than the game itself, the company is saving millions by not buying air time on February 7th, and will instead invest $20M in a social media campaign. I never watch football, but even I would tune in for the Pepsi commercial to see MJ, Madonna or Britney.
The second was an advertisement for the upcoming movie musical “Nine” which I saw last week. Embedded in General Hospital (GH). And in One Life to Live (OLTL). (Yes, I freely confess to being a soap opera junkie; I developed the habit at my mother’s knee.) In all my decades of soap-watching, I’ve never seen this degree of integrated advertising. I shouldn’t be surprised; the first daytime dramas were produced by Proctor & Gamble a platform to sell detergent, hence the moniker “soap opera.”
The “Nine” spots were different. On OLTL, college kids watched an online trailer and discussed dancing and that the hot young cast included Penelope Cruz. Since one of the OLTL characters is a film student, he explained the origins of the film in Fellini and Broadway. On GH, it was the “Nine” movie poster on a bar wall that sparked a conversation between a 40-something couple, culminating in an invitation to see the movie on opening night (full details provided). This couple touched on prestigious cast members such as Sophia Loren. Both bits were followed by the real “Nine” TV commercial.
If these two spots had been well integrated, part of seemingly natural conversations (or as natural as any dialogue on a soap can be), I wouldn’t have minded. But it was SO obvious these were paid placements.