So Just Shill… to the Next Episode

The latest episode of MySpace’s original jigglefest series Roommates is so blatant with its product placement that I don’t know whether to to be ashamed, or stand up and applaud its bald-faced lack of pretense, throwing away any semblance of art.

This episode isn’t a show, it’s a commercial. A bad commercial.

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Two of the girls take a trip to the (sponsor) Ford dealership, where the aspiring actress explains to the salesman that price matters, and since she has to drive to auditions, gas mileage does too. She, of course, needs to “upgrade” to a Focus, which she learns during a test drive, the car features a “fully integrated, voice activated, in-car communication entertainment system for your phone and digital media player.”

We’ve talked before about what role product placement should play in web video, and how web video is turning into a shill game. But this makes the massive product placement in Kate Modern look like PBS.

I’m no hippie. I get and appreciate commerce. Independent producers want to make web shows, but have no money. Brands have lots of money and want to connect with today’s hip, young audiences. Today’s hip audiences hate pre-roll ads, so advertisers must find other ways to get their message out. Which brings us back to the independent producer who will gladly take the brand’s money.

With the writer’s strike happening, many expect that now is the big chance for web video to catch on and find audiences. But potential viewers are going to be alienated unless product placement a little more elegant.

(And no, the irony of my re-stating Ford’s talking points in this post is not lost on me. But it did not pay for this message.)

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