What bothers me about advertisements more than anything else is the blatant disregard for honesty, or even just realism. Never mind the fact they hawk consumer goods we usually don't need to survive. What bugs me is seeing a woman, who no longer even resembles a human being after all the air-brushing and make-up, standing in her underwear, showing a big, white, tooth-y grin, twirling a pair of jeans above her head with some absurd slogan underneath reading "Guess Likes It Hot. We Bet You Do Too." Nothing about the ad reflects a truthful depiction of our reality--which even the best surrealist art manages to do (but I'm willing to admit I'm wrong on this one if you can introduce me to a perfectly proportioned, sane female who takes delight in using her pants as a lasso). Thanks to recent agreements between McDonalds and several local US news outlets, even reality could stop reflecting reality soon.
In recent weeks the news anchors of the Fox affiliate in Las Vegas, KVVU, sit at their table during the "News and Lifestyle" portion of their morning show behind two large cups of McDonalds' new ice coffee. Of course the anchors rarely interact with the coffee, and they wouldn't dare drink it as it's filled with fake ice and some liquid chemical meant to look appealing under the studio lights. It's part of a new advertising plan that other cities including Seattle, Chicago, and New York have also picked up as a way to generate more revenue to compete with Internet news sources.
Many are outraged by the mixed messages the product placement sends. It's one thing to see it in fictional films and TV shows, but to have it in the same frame as a person reading a report on, say, an Exxon Mobil oil spill sends a different kind of message. Corporations will be further woven into the fabric of society, and not seen as the separate, individual entities that warrant skepticism when necessary. Adam P. Bradshaw, news director of KVVU, insists the coffee cups will provide no such blur in reporting. If the station chooses to run a negative story on McDonalds, for example, the cups will be whisked away. Meredith Corporation, owner of 12 stations that will participate in the ad campaign, says the product placement will only occur in the morning shows and not on the "hard news" programs that run in the evening and night. For now, anyway.
With newspapers and television stations struggling to compete with the Internet, product placement in the news was bound to happen sooner or later, and I predict it will only become an increasing trend even among the networks who have shunned the idea (ABC, CBS, and NBC are among the few). But part of the reason why the Internet is increasingly looked to for the news is for the broader reporting and alternative it provides to mainstream outlets. I suspect the "McNews" will probably further reroute people to seek serious information else where.
