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American Morning

Advertising Plot Placement in 'All My Children'

Aired March 18, 2002 - 07:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You talk about a TV tie-in. If there was an award for synergy between network and advertiser, then ABC and Revlon might just win hands down.

In a major new storyline on the ABC soap, "All My Children," character Erica Kane, who runs her own cosmetics company apparently, called Enchantment, will do battle with industry giant, Revlon. Now, in return -- get this -- Revlon will spend several million dollars in advertising on the show. It is a new kind of plot placement, they are calling it. The question is: Can we expect more of this?

Ad maven, Jerry Della Femina, joins us now from West Palm Beach, Florida -- thanks for being with us, Jerry.

JERRY DELLA FEMINA, ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE: Good to be here.

COOPER: I've got to tell you, I just bought a TiVo, and the whole point was I can eliminate watching commercials. Now, it seems like they are figuring our new ways to put commercials inside programming, so you can't TiVo it out. Is this the wave of the future?

FEMINA: It's the wave of the future. Actually, as an advertising person, I think Revlon made a great deal, but as a human, I think it's a nightmare. I think that ABC really let the genie out of the bottle.

COOPER: Well, I mean, ABC is doing terribly in the ratings. Is this just a coincidence? I mean, they seem to be in the forefront of this kind of plot placement. Is that coincidence? Or is it a sign of their desperation?

FEMINA: It's a sign of desperation. I mean, they have to -- you know, they have to be in a lot of trouble if they are letting an advertiser into the program. I mean, there's got to be a firewall between the advertising and programming, no matter what the programming is. But this is a mistake, and it's going to get worse.

COOPER: Now, why do you think it's going to get worse?

FEMINA: Well, it doesn't just stop, but this, I mean, people are going to -- other advertisers are going to jump in on this. I mean, you could just see in the future Ted Koppel opening up "Nightline" by saying, "While I am putting on this Revlon eyeliner, so I can look younger, and watch me as I color my hair. We'll then get to Revlon's view of the war in Afghanistan." I think that there has got to be a separation of church and state. Advertising should be advertising and program content should be program content. ABC just blurred the lines.

COOPER: Jerry?

FEMINA: Yes.

COOPER: That's good coffee. I'm holding up a coffee mug. It's all right, Jerry. How exactly does this work? Who approaches who? Does the show approach the advertiser? Or does the advertiser come to the program? Tell us about this marriage, how it works.

FEMINA: I've got to think the advertiser came to the show and said, look, we've got a great -- you know, a great opportunity for you. We are going to spend money. And I think if you are sitting at ABC today, they'd say wait a second. It's a live one. Let's give him whatever he wants. And you know, it becomes a disaster. I mean, at this point, there are advertisers watching this saying, wait a minute, we can get in on anything. So it's a problem.

COOPER: Well, you know, there are some people, just to play Devil's advocate, who are going to say this, and say, look it's a soap opera. This is not, you know, the most important thing on the planet. Who cares if, you know, they affect the story line? It's not as if soap operas have so much integrity that this really matters, does it?

FEMINA: Today soap opera, tomorrow the world. I mean, the fact is that that's where it starts, but they are going to come into everything else. This actually used to happen years ago on radio. There were advertisers on radio, you know, basically Jack Benny would say excuse me one minute while I have my Jell-O or wait -- and you remember the old Perry Como, he would be singing with a cigarette, you know, blowing Chesterfield smoke.

So this is not the first time that this has really happened, but it has been a long time since advertisers had so much influence on program content. I mean, they are going to change it to -- from "All My Children" to "All My Cosmetics."

COOPER: I mean, in a weird way, is it just radio. It harkens back to the early days of television where you had like the Texaco, I think Star Theater they called it?

FEMINA: Yes, right. But they came into the show, and they sang in the middle of the show. But now we're getting into program content. I mean, you're really getting into what the star will say, and I heard that they were going to actually -- at one point, she was going to call Revlon -- quote -- her client "vultures." Well, that's even to further confuse the viewers to say, oh, OK, this is OK. Everything else they say, no, it was true. Not a good thing for television; a good thing for advertising.

COOPER: So you would recommend to your advertising clients that they should do this? FEMINA: I would tell them to be careful about doing it. It's going to backfire. I would not recommend it to my...

COOPER: All right.

FEMINA: I think that there has got to be a wall.

COOPER: All right. Jerry Della Femina, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

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