by PrfktTear » Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:53 pm
McDonalds really does have something with the McRib… I can go months without so much as even thinking about one, but all I need to do is see an ad for it running on TV and all of a sudden I’m craving it like a crack fiend.
It’s all about creating that false demand --- like what Disney does with its classic films, they market it as “available for a limited time only”. They’re basically exploiting human nature though --- if you know you can have access to something any time you sort of forget about it --- like a Big Mac for instance. But if they were to all of a sudden say “Big Macs will be gone for good at the end of June”, I bet their sales would spike significantly.
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I notice a lot of television shows that feature product placement are becoming rather tongue-in-cheek about it. Arrested Development actually filmed in a Burger King while Tobias and Carl Weathers were eating burgers. Tobias even remarked “It’s a wonderful place to eat!” Last night I was watching 30 Rock and Alec Baldwin and Salma Hayek were eating McFlurries and the episode ended with the two of them running into each other at a McDonalds.
You have to give kudos to the writers who are probably told by execs, “Listen, we have to include McFlurries in this episode --- make it happen. They’re being rather blatant about it, almost self referential (?) that they’re doing it --- but even still, we might have a chuckle, “Oh, those clever writers, they’re acknowledging that they know that we know that they are blatantly advertising this product”. Its funny, but at the end of the day they just sold McFlurries.
Also, just look at Daytime television. How do you think daytime serials got the name “Soaps” --- because the advertisers were targeting their prime demographic, which for a long time were stereotypically women. Stay-at-home parents, the retired, and unemployed will sure notice the trend on daytime TV --- how many ads do you see for lawyers or any type of technical schools where you can “get a career”.
I guess the whole point of that is advertisers want to target their demographics --- you don’t see an ad for “feminine hygiene products” during a show that is primarily seen by males ages 18-34. Same as you won’t see a commercial for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition during The View.
These other companies do it --- so why not toy companies? I realize advertising is dollars and in the case of movie lines they’re banking on the movies themselves selling the toys, but that doesn’t always happen.
