Scribes chase blurb bonanza
Product placement perturbs WGA
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The WGA's also demanding reforms in product placement, asserting that the companies are violating the FCC rules requiring disclosure of advertising to viewers.
In a position paper to be released today, guild has asserted that the practice has become so widespread via reality TV shows that the issue requires negotiations to compensate scribes for the additional work. The WGA will also hold a news conference at its Hollywood headquarters with support from SAG leaders.
The announcement's certain to add to concerns by studios and nets over the increased assertiveness of the WGA and SAG following recent elections. Although the WGA's current contract with the AMPTP won't expire until October 2007 and SAG's runs until June 2008, the prospect of a far more confrontational relationship with the writers and actors unions has alarmed execs to the point that they've already begun exploring preliminary planning for dealing with possible strikes.
The WGA asserts that TV writers are being forced to write ad copy and disguise it as a storyline. "The result is that tens of millions of viewers are sometimes being sold products without their knowledge, sold in opaque, subliminal ways and sold in violation of government regulations," it said in the position paper.
The WGA's eight-page paper asserts that the infusion of cash from product placement has fundamentally altered the companies' business relationship with writers. But the guild gave a downbeat assessment of prospects for reaching a deal.
"We would naturally prefer to talk, knowing that to be the wisest course of action among partners," the WGA said in the paper. "Still, the producers appear adamantly opposed to anything resembling a discussion; they have made clear they wish to order the world as they alone see fit and do not need to exhibit the decency to address the legitimate concerns of those people who help them earn their profits."
The WGA's also proposed a code of conduct calling for full disclosure of product integration; limits on its use for children's shows; a guarantee of inclusion of writers' participation in decisionmaking; and extension of all such regulations to cable TV. And it's threatened to seek an FCC investigation and further regulations should the companies fail to agree to the proposed code.
The position paper asserts that use of products in 2004 features jumped 44% and generated revenues of more than $1 billion while product-related TV revs soared 84%, with Burger King, Sony PlayStation, Dove Body Wash, Verizon and Visa all paying as much as $2 million per episode during the third season of "The Apprentice," for example.
"Advertisers understand that the emotional connections viewers have with shows and their characters can be used to motivate viewers to buy their merchandise," the paper said. "Guild members are now the conduits -- we are being told to write the lines that sell this merchandise and to deftly disguise the sale as story."
The paper cited several such examples, including J.C. Penney, Frosted Flakes, EPT Home Pregnancy and a perfume sold at Wal-Mart on "All My Children"; Buick on "Desperate Housewives"; Herbal Essences on "What I Like About You"; Dr. Pepper on "American Dream Derby"; Skintimate on "Outback Jack"; MasterCard and Diner's Club on "The Restaurant"; and Kmart on "America's Next Top Model."
As for going to the FCC, guild asserted that the commission has extended payola rules to TV, has brought deceptive advertising cases against infomercial producers and has requested that the public contact the agency if they spot potential violations.
"The guild does not want its members put in the unacceptable position of facilitating violations of FCC regulations," the paper asserted.
Product integration was not an issue during last year's negotiations between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. But the AMPTP spurned the guild's demand for jurisdiction over reality shows, which has led to the WGA's focusing its organizing efforts on those programs, assisting in a pair of lawsuits alleging wage and overtime violations for the writers on reality shows.
The product integration push also underlines the growing assertiveness of the WGA following September's elections in which members backed far more aggressive slates in the Eastern and Western branches. The WGA West board subsequently fired exec director John McLean and replaced him with director of organizing David Young.
The WGA West contends that a survey earlier this year showed that 73% of its members believe the line between advertising and content needs to be more firmly drawn. In late September, WGA members staged a protest at a New York meeting of ad execs.
"We intend to put the industry on notice that this is a subject that bears discussion in a variety of forums -- including at the FCC," said WGA West president Patric Verrone and WGA East prexy Chris Albers in a joint message to members. "The more we raise this issue, the more pressure we'll bring to bear on advertisers and producers."
The presidents noted that many writers are being forced to increase product integration into shows and predicted that those pressures will increase.
"We're not interested in injuring revenues on which we all depend," Verrone and Albers said in the missive. "But when writers are asked to construct stories around and for the benefit of potato chips or soft drinks, when our members are asked not only to be storytellers but advertisement copywriters as well, then things are getting out of hand. Writers must have greater input and control of this process."
Verrone told Daily Variety that the issue emerged earlier this year during the guild's efforts to organize the writers and editors on reality shows.
"As we spent more time on the reality campaign, the tipping point was that we saw that writers on those shows were just getting bombarded with product integration," he noted. "And it's been creeping into primetime dramas, too."
Today's announcement also included backing from SAG president Alan Rosenberg and Marty Kaplan, associate dean of the USC Annenberg School of Communication and director of the Norman Lear Center.
"The sharp increase in product placement in film and TV too often takes place without any compensation for the very performers that are expected to push those products -- and more often is done without any consultation with those performers and their representatives," Rosenberg said. "It is time for producers to work with artists on this issue, and the best way to do that is to establish a cooperative code of conduct that will protect the artist, the viewing public and advertiser-supported free television."
Kaplan asserted that the general public had been outraged over disclosure of payments by the Bush administration to columnist Armstrong Williams and for video news releases. "In entertainment, the minimum acceptable standard is unambiguous disclosure of stealth commercial content," he added.
