2009植入广告年

《一起来看流星雨》在暑假开播后,因为平均每5分钟出现一次广告而被网友笑称为“史上最长广告片”。虽然植入广告潮已经风行了好些时间,但今年可谓全面井喷,从好莱坞大片到国内偶像剧,我们总在不经意间瞥见那些熟悉的品牌――

The majority of us have been bored by ads long ago. Advertising is everywhere: television, radio,

billboards, magazines, buses, newspapers, the

Internet. From people walking down the street wearing

signs, to flyers in our mailboxes, to ads on the ATM screen as we wait for it to 1)dispense our cash we see ads all day, every day.

So it’s just reasonable that the latest trend in

advertising is to make it less 2)advertorial.

When is an ad not an ad? When it’s product placement.

Moving away from 3)in-your-face ads, where the product is the star, product placement in today’s movies, TV shows, songs, video games and even books can feature “real-life 4)scenarios” with the products and, of course, all those famous brand names 5)hovering in the background.

Actually, this type of advertising practice is nothing

new it can date back to at least the early 1950s. However, it took a movie about a child-sized alien lost on Earth to really place product placement into the public 6)consciousness. In E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), the alien followed a trail of Hershey’s Reese’s Pieces to his new home. The movie was a hit, sales of Reese’s Pieces increased dramatically, and to some, the product placement industry was born.

The Transformers Case

Those who work in the ad business jokingly said the Transformers series was truly a master lesson in product placement: not only has GM gained eyeball time as much as possible, the idea of Transformers actually provides us a sense of creativity. It isn’t the 7)nostalgia of the toys themselves or the memories of your childhood. For many people, it’s more about a time when you could be as creative as you like, without fear of rejection or failure. Tag a brand to that feeling and wrap it up in a movie? Now the audience can associate their creative feelings with all those fascinating cars!

But critics have long charged that product

placement is ruining television and movies, and the Transformers series is understandably a perfect target. When the first movie hit the theater in 2007, people were quick to debate its heavy use of product placement.

Though Michael Bay, the director, claimed that brand names were everywhere in real life and should stay that way in the movie, is it a real world where everyone drives a GM car? How about a world where all the top-level government officials use Macbook? The production stuff seemed to find this world a bit 8)ridiculous as well, so they changed the product placement strategy in the sequel. Instead of being one big car commercial for GM, it 9)incorporates different car manufacturers that make the auto 10)lineup more diverse and therefore, well, more believable. It is said that there won’t be a third movie

until 2012. Personally, I can’t wait to see what new

strategy Bay will apply then!

With digital technology continuing to 11)skyrocket in both form and function, there’s a seemingly endless stream of new ways to put products in front of potential consumers. Whatever the future holds, there’s no doubt you’ll continue to see many of your favorite stars holding, handling and using products of all kinds on the big and small screens for years to come. Next time you watch a movie, try to keep an eye out for products and brand names you recognize. I bet you’ll soon notice something really entertaining. “How,” you may wonder, “can the

actor hold the Coke can just the right way every time so that the logo is perfectly visible?”

大多数人早已对广告烦不胜烦了。广告到处皆是,遍布电视、广播、广告牌、杂志、公交车、报纸和互联网。从挂着商标满大街跑的活人广告到邮箱里的传单,再到我们等着自动柜员机(ATM)吐钱时屏幕上的广告――我们每时每刻、无时无刻都被广告包围着。

所以最近广告业流行将广告制作得不那么正式也是非常有道理的。

一则广告什么时候才不像广告呢?当它变成植入广告的时候。

植入广告不再以产品唱主角,裸地呈现在人们面前。如今这些出现在电影、电视节目、歌曲、游戏甚至书本当中的植入广告能够营造出“现实生活氛围”,而产品(当然也包括所有那些知名品牌)则成了作品的背景。

实际上,这种广告形式并不是什么新事物――它起码可以追溯至20世纪50年代初期。然而,直到一部关于个头和小孩差不多的外星人在地球迷路的电影出现之后,植入广告才真正引起了公众的关注。在《ET外星人》(1982年)中,外星人跟着好时公司的里斯巧克力来到它的新家。电影大卖,里斯巧克力的销量激增,而对部分人来说,植入广告业也随之诞生。

《变形金刚》的成功案例

从事广告业的人开玩笑说,《变形金刚》系列电影确实是植入广告的大师级课程――不仅通用汽车(GM)受到尽可能多的关注,实际上,只要一想到变形金刚,我们就会产生一种创意感。这不是对玩具本身的怀旧,也不是你对童年的回忆。对于许多人来说,那是一段你可以随心所欲地创造,无需担心被拒绝也无惧失败的时光。将这种感觉标上牌子并将它包装进一部电影?这样观众就可以将自己的创意感与所有这些迷人的汽车联系在一起了!

不过,批评家们一直指责植入广告会毁掉电视和电影,而《变形金刚》系列当然是最理想的靶子。2007年第一集上映时,大量出现的植入广告马上在观众当中引起争论。虽然导演迈克尔・贝

说现实生活中品牌比比皆是,所以电影也应如此――但是现实中真的每个人都开通用的车吗?那么一个所有政府高官都用苹果笔记本电脑的世界又如何呢?制作方似乎也发现这样的世界有点荒谬,所以他们改变了续集的植入广告策略。他们没有将电影拍成大型的通用汽车广告,而是加入了各家汽车制造商,使汽车阵容更加多样化,从而增加电影的可信度。据说我们要等到2012年

才能看到第三集。就个人而言,我迫不及待想看看迈克尔・贝届时会耍什么

新招数呢!

随着数码技术在形式和功能两方面不断突飞猛进,将产品推向潜在顾客群的新方法似乎也会层出不穷。无论未来走势如何,毫无疑问的是,接下来你仍将继续看到许多喜爱的明星在大小银幕上手持、操作和使用各种各样的产品。下一次观看电影的时候,不妨留心看看你能辨识出多少产品和牌子。我敢肯定你很快就会发现一件非常好玩的事情。你也许会想:“这演员怎么能每次拿可口可乐的方式都这么巧妙,恰好让产品商标清清楚楚地露出来呢?”