The Curmudgeon: Stuart Elliott complains about product placement
Veteran advertising journalist Stuart Elliott has a pet hate - product placement - and boy does he want you to know about it. Here, in the first of a new video series focusing on some the pet peeves by the more established industry personalities, Elliott gives the industry both barrels for their heavy handed approach to pushing products in front of TV audience’s faces.
In this exclusive video, Elliott grumbles about the role of product placement which “sells stuff” and moans about the growing use of the megabucks deals on television and online videos (a bit like the one he appears in) by blue chip brands.
Less than enthusiastically, Elliott relays the history of the strategy also referred to as ‘ad creep’ and how it has matured and grown in popularity with brand marketers through to present day.
“It’s the Achilles Heel of Madison Avenue” states Elliott who claims that ad agencies can’t help but run such promotions into the ground and states his opposition to them continuing to do so.
Eliott is a long admired figure within US advertising reporting and continues to be so after leaving the New York Times last year.
The Curmudgeon is a series of videos speaking to well known figures within advertising about what they most hate within the sector.
An event, Learn from the Curmudgeons, will take place during Advertising Week New York on Monday 1pm in the Liberty Theatre feauring The Drum's editor-at-large, Dave Birss, Jeremy Judge, co-founder of The Fearless Group, Jerry Shereshewsky, chief gownUp at GrownUp Marketing and Albert Lieberman, executive director entertainment, media & technology program at Stern School of Business, NYU.