PRODUCTS ARE PLACED ON WRITERS DESKS TO SCRIPT INTO SHOWS – MAD MEN’S BROADCASTING CONTRACT CHANGES
What does a shampoo bottle have in common with Christina Hendrick‘s hair color? Her paycheck on TV.
All audiences of TV exist for advertisers. When people have TeVo and record shows to then fast forward ads, or have Facebook time in between commercial breaks when watching their shows being broadcast, with a button on mute, advertisers don’t get a good deal any more on the TV. Super Bowl is the big exception. Ads are all watched. Sports ads entertainment are beauties, always.
Even with hit shows, like Mad Men the writers aren’t exempt from being corporate sponsors of their shows, messengers. AMC announced via Deadline Hollywood that ‘the upcoming fifth season of Mad Men is now slated to debut in March 2012. That is 17 months from the series’ fourth season finale. While the protracted negotiations between Mad Men creator/ exec producer Matt Weiner and AMC/Lionsgate TV led to the acclaimed series’ pushed production start and, in turn, caused the show to miss its original July premiere date, the new March return date is not directly tied to the contract talks.’
In addition product placement with AMC’s writers is where the network is heading. Mad Men’s historical context, leaves a lot of modern products out of the world of the show. This may or may not be a problem. Since then AMC has diversified too, into other shows, with writers who will put products into their shows via the scripting of the show. AMC like worker with writers like this.
AMC’s argument with these changes for Mad Men is that it ‘has now 5 original series to accommodate and its next available slot for Mad Men was in March 2012. Mad Men was AMC’s first series, which put the cable network on the original programming map. Since then, AMC has successfully launched several other series, most recently The Walking Dead, which supplanted Mad Men as the network’s highest-rated show.’
The Walking Dead stars are now more current in this climate of pop culture, so AMC is going with that as well.
Thankfully Mad Men‘s stars are bonafide celebrity actors now, acting in films –so they’re all good. Shampoo inclusions or not in their 2012 version of their hit show.
America currently is in Genie in a bottle, states of existence. All people are being served up to the tastes of the top 10% of Americans (networks and their writers and puppets too). Go here for a pop music commentary on this ‘United States of I Dream of Jeanie’ reality.
~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 3.28.11~
