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The Amazing Race => The Amazing Race Discussion => Topic started by: walkingpneumonia on December 24, 2008, 09:46:58 AM
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How would more product placement in TAR affect you? Would you be less likely to watch if you knew there would be some "in-place" commercials in each episode?
What if the route was manipulated so they always had to use one airline or an allied group of airlines - e.g. Star Alliance (United, Air Canada, Lufthansa etc...), Oneworld, Skyteam? "Teams must travel 5000 miles by United Airlines to Endoftheworld..."
We already have the Travelocity connection and Mercedes product placement this season. I like how they fit the Travelocity Gnome into episodes - although I always groan when they describe the gnome enabled roadblock.
How about - "this episode is brought to you by the Australian Ministry of Tourism"? Or a clue that says - "drive your energy efficient Chevy Volt to the next pit stop"? "Use your Magellan GPS to navigate to the roadblock"?
Would you feel the show was cheapened? What if it was the option of no TAR or short TAR due to rising costs vs a more commercial TAR?
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TAR has always been near the top in placement: search "amazing race" and "product placement" and you'll see the rankings through the years. The trick for WRP/CBS is to salt the show with ads without irritating the viewers (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1183275,00.html). And apparently the advertisers are getting their money's worth (http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/tag/product-placement/) (fooled me: I thought that pointing out McD's would be done for any American tourist, but I guess it was a sponsored plug). As for the airlines, Apskip can answer that better, but I'm guessing production wouldn't want to hamstring themselves.
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For me, more product placements translates to more exciting destinations and expensive (production wise) activities, so the more the better I say.
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I wouldn't mind more product placement in exchange for more TAR. I mean, in TARA they say "CALTEX" almost 1 time per minute, but it's still OK. I think the best product placement I've seen in TARA is when Standard Chartered Bank and Singha Bear donated to charities.