Product Placement in the UK

The ban of product placement is viewed as a problem by many advertisers and broadcasters, especially since Andy Burnham, then the culture secretary, earlier this year said that the ban would continue for UK television. He said it would blur the boundaries between advertising and content, and his "priority has always been to make sure we maintain levels of trust between audiences and broadcasters, and protect the standards of broadcasting for which Britain is known worldwide." Cody Hogarth, managing director of New State (Endamol's branded content division), backs up Burnham's decision by saying: "I don't think we'd ever find a commissioner who would take a programme that had product placement all over it."

The Conservative party however, has a different view, as they say they would relax the product placement rules- Ed Vaizey, the shadow minister for culture says "We don't think that product placement is a panacea for all the ills of commercial broadcasting. But we do believe that we should relax the rules." It has been estimated that product placement in the UK could be worth between £40m and £70m a year. Vaizey says "we also trust the broadcasters to understand their audience."

All parties also recognise that UK viewers are already viewing heavy product placement in programmes imported from the US. Mark Eaves (managing director for Drum PHD media agency) says "we either level the playing field or we take steps against imported programmes and series."

I know there has been concern about whether UK audiences would react well to product placement in programmes, but as Eaves points out, we are already used to it from the imports. Surely the decision should be whether we allow them on all programming, or not at all. However, Rabin Mukerjea, partner at the Grand Central Entertainment content agency, disagrees with this. "If there was a way of us fast forwarding, we could do what the US does- right now we'd be starting from year dot, so how long it would take to learn that lesson I don't know." Mukerjea argues that it's not a case of either having it everywhere or not at all. It would be something that programmers would have to ease into, with a risk of how audiences would react- US audiences are used to it everywhere as it blends into backgrounds. But product placement may stand out and distract audiences in the UK.