unforum

[konamouse]

OMG - I so wanted Monster House to come in here and give me a dolphin living room. Or even better, a backyard!

But then the show ended.

[Euchre]

[iheathen]

I think any story can fit any product... I mean, what does inter-dimensional travel, amnesia, and ancient olympics have to do with hamburgers? To me, that's all about McDonalds trying to alter their brand perception. The sheer fact that they are seen as "not very interesting" or "boring" or "run of the mill" means that for them to change that perception they need to do something that's the opposite of that.

At least, that's me trying to rationalize why in the hell McDonalds decided to make an ARG.

So I don't think the story needs to reflect the brand... at least McDonalds gave us that...it's liberating really. It's all about what the brand is trying to achieve, and how the ARG is designed to achieve their results for them.

Plus, a challenging product to me just presents more opportunity to be creative...

a pregnancy test ARG could be about an orphan searching for their birth-parents. A home renovation ARG could be about a mysterious fire that burned down a new condominium project that was still under construction...

know what i mean?

[Gregoriev]

Ah! Oh god! Zombies are taking over the Earth!

Must go to Home Depot to buy plywood to nail over the windows and doors!

[tabster]

well, you could have too much product placement, because youre trying to make money

such as:

[notgordian]

[konamouse]

[Gregoriev]

[notgordian]

Kona: I think this returns us to the original premise: it's all in how you do the product placement. Psych, for example, has made obscure references and obsessing over minutiae a signature of the dialogue -- so the instances of product placement makes sense, and that Red Robin scene was hilarious. (Strawberry or vanilla?)

I haven't watched Eureka since the first season, but I can see it fitting in with the plot fairly well, since the show is all about eccentric scientists doing crazy things to pursue their passions.

Are there limits? Sure. But a lot of that limitation is upon the writer/designer's ability to integrate the placement seamlessly into the program (or, in this case, alternate reality game), and the audience's tolerance level. The bigger the intuitive leap, the harder it will be to do it without leaving significant percentages of the audience unsettled. For me, the Fantastic Four movies crossed that line with all the oversized billboards in the cityscape.

[Rogi Ocnorb]

I think it's kind of fun spotting the kitschy Degree/Cisco/Dunkin Donuts stuff.

But it could get old, really fast if they don't have a fairly deep stable of advertisers.

Clothiers and car manufacturers have been doing this forever and nobody seemed to care.

I know monthly subscription fees to cable/satellite will never go down because of this, but it'd be nice if the sponsors little vignettes put the producers in a place where they could have less "actual" commercials.

Hey, A guy can dream.

[Gregoriev]

[Rogi Ocnorb]

I'm sure that's not all I missed.
We could start a new version of "Hi, Bob".

[Gregoriev]

[Nighthawk]