Writers' Guild Says Product Placements Are Out of Control

Posted on November 15, 2005

Have you noticed that your favorite TV stars are now drinking actual Coke and Pepsi on set? That they might order a name-brand pizza or talk about the amazing performance of their new Jeep? There's a reason for that: product placements.

Now the Writer's Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild say that product placement has gotten out of hand and have called for limits on the practice of weaving commercial brands into the story lines of movies and TV shows. The unions have called for the writers and actors to be paid more, because weaving a specific product into an already-written plot is a lot more work. The unions said product placements are up by 44% in film and 84% in television shows last year.

Reuters reports that the WGA filed an policy paper on the issue citing the third season of NBC reality show The Apprentice as an example. The WGA says Burger King, Dove Body Wash, Sony PlayStation, Verizon Wireless and Visa all paid for product placements. The amount spent by the companies on the product placements was around $2 million.

Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild, West, tells Reuters, "In their race to the bottom line to create the so-called new business model, network and advertising executives are ignoring the public's interest and demanding that creative artists participate in stealth advertising disguised as a story."

Being writers, of course they issued an 8 page policy paper. But will anyone actually read it? We hope so, because this business of paying everyone but the writers is quite annoying.