Recently I have noticed that many of the music radio stations to which I listen appear to engage in a lot of product placement. By that I mean various radio personalities appear to spend a lot of time discussing how much they enjoy a particular product or service such as a weight-loss center or a breakfast food. Because they talk about the product or service in the context of their routine dialogue, it takes me a while to catch on to the fact that they might be engaging in some form of advertising. In that regard, these product "discussions" seem potentially deceptive, and hence problematic. And I wondered if they were a form of stealth advertising.
I recall that last year the FTC expressed concern about the dangers of stealth advertising, which is marketing that fails to clearly disclose the relationship between the marketer and the consumer, such as when a celebrity secretly gets paid to wear certain products. In addition, Ellen Goodman has written an article in the Texas Law Review about stealth marketing and the potential harms posed by advertisers who pass off promotional messages as editorial content. Goodman points out that such advertising is harmful not only because it is deceptive, but also because it harms robust public discourse by creating skepticism regarding the authentity of media communications, and potentially creating the impression that all communications are promotional in nature. I am not certain if the radio personalities to whom I listen are getting paid for their seeming promotions--that is there is no disclosure after their, in some cases lengthy, conversations about a given product. But of course that uncertainty is the problem. I will admit that my uncertainty has caused me to become much more skeptical about all of the conversations occuring on the radio--but maybe that just means these personalities need to get back to playing music. . .
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1. Posted by Dave! on May 30, 2007 @ 10:33 | Permalink
Actually, there was a piece on All Things Considered yesterday about stealth marketing, and unless I heard wrong, the FTC didn't express much concern about it at all.
A consumer group had asked the FTC to investigate "word of mouth" type advertising, and the FTC declined to issue guidelines, and only issued a staff memo that basically said it was cool--as long as there was disclosure.
I'll definitely check out Goodman's article, sounds interesting!
2. Posted by Archit on May 30, 2007 @ 11:01 | Permalink
Keep the stealth advertising coming if it inspires more "skepticism regarding the authentity of media communications."
3. Posted by Jake on May 30, 2007 @ 19:51 | Permalink
Geez, this seems familiar. Back in the 60s a lot of folks were concerned about "subliminal messaging" in TV broadcasts (which most of us were watching on black and white, not color, TVs at the time).
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