Skip to main content
My Shows
News on your favorite shows, specials & more!
Home For You Chat My Shows Register/Login Games Grosses

"Broadway slow to embrace product placement."

New Post Search Report Abuse Rules

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.

#1

"Broadway slow to embrace product placement."

Posted: 12/10/07 at 9:46am

...is this a problem?

Yahoo.com
"Who is Stephen Sondheim?" -roninjoey
"The man who wishes he had written Phantom of the Opera!" - SueleenGay

GO CARDINALS!!!

Updated On: 12/10/07 at 09:46 AM

#2

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 9:52am

My opinion is that the only thing using product placement will lose you is respect among the community. And even that can be salvaged somewhat if what you're making is genuinely good (honestly, how many people would get up in arms if a new Sondheim show had a reference to Mr. Pibb in it?)

If you look closely, the ones people tend to jump over for using product placement are the ones who make low-quality entertainment (most Adam Sandler movies) and the ones who make idiots of themselves anyway (Michael Bay).
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#3

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 9:56am

Look at Blonde. While it might not be paid product placement, but if those companies were forking over cash would it have changed the show in any way? No.

Granted Sweeney Todd using Barbasol Shaving Cream might be a little different.
"Have they come yet?"
#4

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 10:06am

It is a relief. Nothing would pull me out of the theater experience quicker than thinking "This song is brought to you by Apex Widget, used by stagehands everywhere. Apply directly to the forehead."
#6

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 10:55am

LB's so-called "product placement" isn't that so much as it is a series of pop culture references.

Tiffany's is a proper sponsor, but Jetblue is not. Nor, presumably, is match.com, Beyonce, or any of the other things referenced in the script. Red Bull, I think, gives them free Red Bll to use as props, so that one is debatable.

Product placement is when companies pay to have their products featured in a show.

Blonde may have had to get some form of permission to use, say, the UPS uniform, but that's not the same as product placement.
#7

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 10:59am

What's my secret? Frankly, dear, forgive my candor
Family secret -- use McCormick herbs.
Things like being careful with the coriander
Crusts made by Marie Callender
#8

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 11:04am

i have to agree with Blonde

Its more of Pop Culture references like it is in the film

i personally dont care if theatre has product placement
Namo i love u but we get it already....you don't like Madonna
#10

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 12:13pm

Watch 30 Rock and see how product placement can make a show BETTER- reviews of last week's episode all mentioned the "America Express" story line as one of the best parts of the show- and they were actually ads.

And I used to hate the old days when a film or TV show would make up a product- it's unrealistic to see Mrs. Cleaver use "Betsy Croaker" cake mix. THAT takes me out of the moment.
#11

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 2:03pm

I liked when Tina Fey held up and complimented a product (escapes me now...) on 30 Rock, then said to the camera, "Can we get paid now?"

Also, there was one where they were bitching about the NBC brass telling them to add products to the (fictional) show they write for, then they all had a discussion about how AWESOME Diet Snapple is.

Classic.

#12

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 2:07pm

As part of a plot point, Fey & Baldwin discussed their Verizon phones- the great service, their sound quality, their popularity, before Fey turned to the camera, held up her phone and said "Can we get paid NOW?"

The Snapple scene was my all time favorite.
#13

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 2:29pm

I found all of the name brand products mentioned in LB a bit distracting.
"TheatreDiva90016 - another good reason to frequent these boards less."<<>> “I hesitate to give this line of discussion the validation it so desperately craves by perpetuating it, but the light from logic is getting further and further away with your every successive post.” <<>> -whatever2
#14

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 2:33pm

i'm with Diva. they were silly and felt verymuchso like a commerical. i can see how it can be funny if done properly. but when you personally make a whole scene about Red Bull, i get lost.
#15

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 2:41pm

Who remembers the INSANE product placement during In My Life? I was dying of laughter. Besides the inclusion of left- over Joe Brooks jingles for Volkswagens and Dr. Pepper, there were all of these times where you'd see something like Jessica Boevers unpacking groceries and holding up a HUGE box of Cheerios...
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.
#18

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 3:41pm

30 Rock is the exception, rather than the norm. I did a semester-long project on product placement on TV. Very, very few shows can seamlessly (or humorously) integrate product placement in a way that isn't tacky, sloppy or distracting. I doubt it would be any different were the trend to start on Broadway, and I really don't want to ever see that.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
#20

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 4:57pm

With the Red Bull in Legally Blonde, they do provide free Red Bull for both onstage and backstage. Every dressing room has a fridge specially made by Red Bull for Red Bull!
#22

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 5:23pm

Someone, please help me with the exact reference, but didn't they change a line in "Sweet Charity" because they had a liquor sponsor? I was horrified by that ... until I read these posts & realized how bad it can be.
#25

re: 'Broadway slow to embrace product placement.'

Posted: 12/10/07 at 6:37pm

I think if it can be done right and in the right show, it could be ok. I was fine with all the real life products in LB, and thought it was fine and nothing that pulled me out of the moment (which I feel like if they drank OrangeBull or something silly like that it would have)

That being said, shows like Blonde it can work fine it, but there are plenty of shows, such as period pieces that I don't think it would work in, and hope we never need to see Phantom 2 with a giant chandalier from chandaliers.com or Cats 2 wearing pedmeds.com flea collars.
"The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but it is also the return of art to life." -Oscar Wilde

← Back to Message Board

BroadwayWorld TV

View all Videos

Ticket Central
Ticket Central
Ticket Central
Hot Show
Tickets From $70
Hot Show
Tickets From $77
Hot Show
Tickets From $106
Hot Show
Tickets From $60
More Hot Shows Discounts
Recommended For You