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So, I haven’t really been paying attention to the struggle between television advertisers and DVR/PVR/TIVO for a while. But essentially, if you are taking advantage skipping commercials with your DVR, you are driving down the value of television advertising.

As I have mentioned before, one of the cleanest ways to get around this is through product placement.

One of my favorite shows right now is Burn Notice, and it is shamelessly positioning products. Michael Westen recently spent a few voice-over seconds talking about how offensive driving is helped by the computer-controlled stability control, and the ability to disable it with the touch of a button, in his ex-girlfriend’s convertible Saab. The show’s website will even help you identify and buy the clothes appearing in the show. This has been relatively well done, except for one scene that had little explanation for Michael wearing sandals, other than they wanted to direct you to Zappos.

Product placement also helps out HBO and Showtime. Subscribers pay the same monthly bill to watch both Weeds and/or a piece of cable turd. There is a zero-sum pool of money from which to produce all of these shows whether they are stinkers or Golden Globe-winning ratings monsters. There is no advertising to supplement superstar salaries and exotic location shoots. Enter product placement. In modern shows, like The Sopranos, there was Coke and Entemann’s. But what about The Tudors? This is a period show about King Henry VIII and the crazy Boelyn clan, back in the 1500’s. How can they put product placement to work to pay for all of those fancy clothes?

I’ve got it. The various associations have a great opportunity:

• Beef – “It’s what for dinner”
• Cotton – “My, that tunic is soft and durable, what is that animal skin?” “Why no, squire, it is cotton!”
• Coffee – Really, you can fit Juan Valdez just about anywhere.

Have you seen any other blatant product placement campaigns? I’ll help with one more: Dodge Ram trucks in The Sarah Conner Chronicles. There had to have been a Dodge marketer on the set for those vehicle montages.

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So, I’ve been pretty clear. This election worked out for me. My guy won. I stayed connected to the election through a smattering of media outlets like Slate’s Political Gabfest, Andrew Sullivan, Politico and Salon.com. But when it comes to TV, I just realized, I have watched all of the salient presidential moments on Fox News!

My debate coverage was on Fox. On election night, I was at my Mom’s house. CNN was cutting out and for some reason we just ended up on Fox. And now as I watch the streaming coverage here at work (yes, at work), I’m tuned into Hulu. Hulu’s live coverage is provided by Fox News!

I am amused by the somber, sullen faces of the Fox correspondents. I remember the deflation in Karl Rove’s posture when they called Ohio for Obama. I hear the sighs of Brit Hume and others. I never watch Fox News Otherwise, but for whatever reason, fate this season has kept bringing me back.

One more oddity: the web sponsor for Hulu’s coverage is Paul Blart Mall Cop. I had to watch a commercial and stare at the little icon of Kevin James in the lower right corner of the screen throughout the coverage. Interesting advertising choice.

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… and sometimes I really think it is closer to reality than we would prefer.

In preparation for the traditional task of welcoming his successor to the Oval Office, outgoing president George W. Bush canceled all his appointments and press conferences Monday so he could spend the day outfitting his desk with a series of traps, gags, and hair-trigger switches. “Oh, man, is he gonna get it,” the president said after rearranging the letters on his computer keyboard and supergluing the direct-line-to-the-Pentagon telephone to its base.  – Bush Spends Day Feverishly Booby-Trapping Desk, The Onion

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So, since I was so good to point out that Nissan is doing it wrong, I thought I might speak up when I see it done right.

Hyundai is pushing their new Assurance Guarantee in a big way. Buy a new Hyundai and if you lose your source of income in the next year, you can return the car. This loosely translates to: we care enough that we don’t want you to stress about making car payments if you lose your job, and by the way, our company is going to be around in a year unlike some others you might have heard about. This makes for a much less self serving, one-sided message than Nissan’s cold attempt. Although the url for this assurance is a little shitty: www.walkawayusa.com. That’s nice.

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We have the Dish Network, and I have been amused to hear about the recent contract negotiations between Fisher Broadcasting and Dish Network.

Currently, ABC is unavailable on Dish in Seattle and Yakima, WA; Portland and Eugene, OR; Boise and Idaho Falls, ID; and Bakersfield, CA. In its place, Dish is looping their side of the story. They have a constant pipeline into the homes of their customers. In their story, Fisher Broadcasting is asking for a HUGE increase in broadcasting fees. Dish can’t except such a large increase and is fighting for their customers.

Fisher’s story is that Dish is holding ABC’s outstanding content hostage. Fisher is only asking for a “modest increase in the low double digits”, and it’s all Dish’s fault that you can’t watch Lost or Good Morning America. I know this because I heard a random commercial on the radio while driving around town the other day. KOMO/Fisher is resorting to radio advertising to try and communicate with its Dish Network customers. How much cash is Fisher spending/losing with this type of shotgun advertising approach?

I have to say, Dish has the upper hand, and they are coming off as being more reasonable as they are broadcasting other options to get ABC shows and news (Off-Air antenna, online, news from other networks [ouch]).

There’s no telling how long this might go on. But with most well-known shows on hiatus, the most missed content for a while is going to be news and sports. News can be seen on any other network channel, so sports is the problem. There is no pro football on ABC, and hockey, basketball and others are in the middle of their long regular seasons.

I’m not sure how much ABC is going to be missed right now.

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