Last night marked the 49th Annual Grammy Awards. It was aired at 8pm on CBS. Unfortunately I was unable to watch it live as two of my weekly shows were on at the same time: Desperate Housewives at 9pm and Brothers & Sisters at 10pm, both on ABC. Instead, my roommates and I DVRed the Grammy’s and watched it the next day (today). Since we didn’t watch it live we had the option of fast-forwarding through all of the advertisements. Aside from recognizing a few familiar brands, commercials and celebrities while breezing through the breaks, advertising during the Grammy’s was pretty much ineffective for my roommates and me, and not to mention all of the other viewers who watched the award show through DVR.
Assuming that advertisers and media planners would anticipate this, I expected to spot a lot of product placement throughout the Grammy’s. Instead there were only a few instances where brands were displayed or mentioned clearly enough to be noted. First, singer/actor Jamie Foxx said, “That joke would’ve killed on BET,” after a weak response to his introduction. Samuel L. Jackson was shown in the audience wearing a Kangol brand hat. While accepting his award for Best Rap Album, Ludacris gave shout-outs to a number of radio stations, by name, in Atlanta, Georgia that played his songs. During Chris Brown’s performance of “Run It,” he and his backup dancers stomped on stage wearing Timberland boots. Lastly, and perhaps most significantly, while accepting their award for Best Rock Album, Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bass player walked on stage while sipping a bottle of Fiji brand water. Listing them off may make it seem like the Grammy’s was filled with product placement, but in a 3.5 hour show this is almost nothing. Plenty of time for strategic product placement went neglected. With the increasing popularity of DVR and the large audience base, you would think more advertisers would take advantage of this vehicle. Maybe next year…
No comments:
Post a Comment