Comments on: McDonald’s Serves Up Paid Product Placement on Local TV News http://www.davidwmullen.com/2008/07/22/mcdonalds-serves-up-paid-product-placement-on-local-tv-news/ David Mullen on PR, Integrated Communications and Social Media Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:15:53 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: Nicole http://www.davidwmullen.com/2008/07/22/mcdonalds-serves-up-paid-product-placement-on-local-tv-news/#comment-55 Nicole Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:53:37 +0000 http://davidmullen.wordpress.com/?p=144#comment-55 So many broadcasting companies are on a loss of money and sometimes, this is what they do to try to make up for that. One of the other things they are doing is upholding a hiring freeze, layoffs, etc. This was probably some scheme thought up by one of their national sales people and then the general manager and news director agreed to. Maybe it was better to them than laying off employees. Anyways, I think a lot of companies might be on the verge of trying anything that might make them a few extra bucks. Television is notorious for that habit. Other journalistic mediums are not. This is not the golden age of television anymore. This might be a longer downfall than print media but it might be the uphill battle for it. That's just the business side. For the journalistic side, you're technically not supposed to make stories out of "advertising." Putting a McDonalds coffee on the news desk while reporting a story is the same thing as putting a super over the story. You're left thinking, what does that have to do with wildfires in California? Absolutely nothing, but it was just some money making scheme; an abomination created by their sales department. What they need is a wakeup call that says, "Hey, we are journalists." We are not supposed to be entertainment (well not American Idol type entertainment). So many broadcasting companies are on a loss of money and sometimes, this is what they do to try to make up for that.

One of the other things they are doing is upholding a hiring freeze, layoffs, etc.

This was probably some scheme thought up by one of their national sales people and then the general manager and news director agreed to. Maybe it was better to them than laying off employees. Anyways, I think a lot of companies might be on the verge of trying anything that might make them a few extra bucks. Television is notorious for that habit. Other journalistic mediums are not. This is not the golden age of television anymore. This might be a longer downfall than print media but it might be the uphill battle for it.

That’s just the business side. For the journalistic side, you’re technically not supposed to make stories out of “advertising.” Putting a McDonalds coffee on the news desk while reporting a story is the same thing as putting a super over the story. You’re left thinking, what does that have to do with wildfires in California? Absolutely nothing, but it was just some money making scheme; an abomination created by their sales department.

What they need is a wakeup call that says, “Hey, we are journalists.” We are not supposed to be entertainment (well not American Idol type entertainment).

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