2 Of Nation's Biggest Advertisers Join For Movie
By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --If you watch NBC’s “The Jensen Project” on Friday, you probably won’t realize how much the science fiction movie owes to toothpaste and diapers.
The science fiction movie is part of a broader narrative being written by the world’s largest retailer and the world’s largest consumer products company. It is produced and bankrolled by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the Procter & Gamble Co. as the second of what the companies hope is a long-running series of family friendly programs they will bring to television.
“The Jensen Project” features LeVar Burton of “Roots” and “Reading Rainbow,” with Patricia Richardson of “Home Improvement.” The “project” is a secret community of geniuses formed to solve some of the world’s problems, and they must fight to keep a new technology from falling into evil hands.
The companies consider it a perfect movie for parents to watch with their children — without bad language or questionable content. It is material company executives say isn’t often available.
NBC welcomes the relationship and acknowledges that it “truly is programming that the entire family can enjoy together.”
“We’re trying to increase the supply,” Stephen Quinn, chief marketing officer at Wal-Mart, said. “Our belief was that the demand was there but the supply was short.”
Their first project, the movie “Secrets of the Mountain,” aired on NBC in April and was seen by a healthy audience of 7.5 million people. It was subsequently packaged by Wal-Mart to sell in its stores as a DVD and has sold more there than any other television movie, Quinn said.
“The Jensen Project” will get similar treatment, and the DVD will be paired with a soundtrack produced by Randy Jackson with music from Jordin Sparks and others.
The companies say their own research shows their customers want more family material. What is more important is that consumers have a more favorable view of their products, and a stronger inclination to buy them, if advertisements are associated with family friendly material. And the shows counter an opposing trend: Some consumers notice if a company’s ads are seen in racy programming, and advertisers are often targeted when boycott campaigns are launched.
“You’ve heard of being judged by the company you keep?” said Marc Pritchard, global marketing and brand-building officer at Procter & Gamble, which makes products such as Tide laundry detergent, Crest toothpaste and Pampers disposable diapers. “We’re judged by the company we keep.”
The companies insist they’re not trying to use their muscle to force out more adult-oriented fare. Instead, they want more alternatives for their brands. Wal-Mart says it has recently started advertising more on the Hallmark Channel, known for its family movies and reruns of such series as “Little House on the Prairie.” Procter & Gamble traditionally buys more television advertising than any other single company.
Wal-Mart is using many ways to get the word out to its customers about “The Jensen Project,” including promotion on its Facebook page and several blogs aimed at mothers, Quinn said.
Many of those customers are looking for alternatives. Family viewing is key to television’s most popular show, “American Idol.” But with scripted material, many Hollywood producers and network executives consider family friendly a synonym for dull, particularly when they’re most intent on seeking young adult viewers.
For NBC, a family movie on a summer Friday night is a relatively risk-free move — particularly when the producers paid for making it and have guaranteed that the network will not lose money by airing it.
Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble have started the Alliance for Family Entertainment with about 40 prominent advertisers, including Hasbro, General Mills and Pepsi-Cola. They have one other movie, “A Walk in My Shoes,” that will be ready to air this fall.
The alliance is also looking to produce series and is working with MTV on a show, “Pedro & Maria,” that will begin this fall, Pritchard said. They would like to enter the growing Spanish-language market, too.
The alliance is an outgrowth of the 1990s-era Family Friendly Programming Forum, where advertisers paid seed money to develop scripts for family friendly programming. “Gilmore Girls” was that group’s most prominent success.
“We’re looking to improve the programming in a number of different ways,” Quinn said.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More