Product Placement or Advertising? (1 Viewer)

[Tringa45]

Yesterday evening I watched a programme on 3sat, "Die Magie der Vögel", the magic of birds. Now 3sat is a cooperative of public TV companies in Germany, Switzerland and Austria and is theoretically free of advertising.
This Austrian-produced programme showed various aspects of birdwatching but curiously every binocular and scope was a Swarovski!
Examples were an elderly woman observing without glasses and without extended eyecups on her EL and junior school kids taking part in a birdrace with ELs and NLs!
The sole exception was a baby looking through two toilet rolls but with "Swarovski" written on one of them.
The only instance where Swarovski was absent was in the end credits. All in all not very convincing.

John

 

[tenex]

See fourth entry here: PKMFILM.COM | PKM FilmproduktionsgmbH

No useful information on the site. Presumably equipment loan for "product placement", but the eyecup thing is odd and the toilet roll especially bizarre.

 

[John A Roberts]

So Swarovski may be giving a heads-up that it's going to add a new model,
similar to the well known TP 1x Duoply Binocular, with Comfy-Adjust IPD:



From: https://home.howstuf...difference.htm)

 

[Rotherbirder]

Optically superb and very lightweight but the armour dissolves into mush in the rain! Haven't I seen that somewhere before?

RB

 

[pbjosh]

Optically superb and very lightweight but the armour dissolves into mush in the rain! Haven't I seen that somewhere before?

RB

Lightweight?

 

[seawatcher]

Optically superb and very lightweight but the armour dissolves into mush in the rain! Haven't I seen that somewhere before?

RB

So, without a doubt made by swarovski then?

 

[claves_10]

environmentally friendly 99% ?

 

[jafritten]

Yesterday evening I watched a programme on 3sat, "Die Magie der Vögel", the magic of birds. Now 3sat is a cooperative of public TV companies in Germany, Switzerland and Austria and is theoretically free of advertising.
This Austrian-produced programme showed various aspects of birdwatching but curiously every binocular and scope was a Swarovski!
Examples were an elderly woman observing without glasses and without extended eyecups on her EL and junior school kids taking part in a birdrace with ELs and NLs!
The sole exception was a baby looking through two toilet rolls but with "Swarovski" written on one of them.
The only instance where Swarovski was absent was in the end credits. All in all not very convincing.

John

Seems like blatant product placement to me. I haven't watched the programme you mentioned but I have seen many productions with Andreas Kieling in it sporting Swarovskis on his chest with eyecups not extended (notably x32 ELs) In other (older) productions he uses Leicas and Zeiss binoculars (eyecups extended) and other gear like Canon DSLRs with the brand names taped or not as easily recognised as such...

Mr Kieling is a rather prominent wildlife filmmaker on German public television.

 

[jafritten]

My childhood hero Heinz Sielmann and below Mr Andreas Kieling

 

[tehri]

I don't know, but might be useful for some, ' Die Magie der Vögel ' available here until January 25, 2024
Die Magie der Vögel - Was Birdwatcher begeistert

 

[Foss]

Some of the old James Bond movies were thick with paid product placement.

 

[Paultricounty]

So Swarovski may be giving a heads-up that it's going to add a new model,
similar to the well known TP 1x Duoply Binocular, with Comfy-Adjust IPD:

View attachment 1539782

From: https://home.howstuf...difference.htm)

I’m not sure about this, seems to me like a crappy design. 😆

 

[GrampaTom]

Examples were an elderly woman observing without glasses and without extended eyecups on her EL ...

Is this a thing? I do it often.

 

[GrampaTom]

Advertising is something a publication charges for, a seller pays. Product placement is as normal and common as... whatever. A manufacturer/seller of stuff, (we might "guess" Swarovski here), pays to produce the show then an outlet, magazine, station, decides the value of the content in lieu of its own production or content purchasing costs, makes the presence of branded product acceptable. Product placement often occurs after advertising is purchased. It is a quid pro quo. Common, (imagine it still is) in the old days when magazines ruled. You want photos of your stuff in and among our stories, editorial? Buy some advertising please. Same was and probably still is true of what gets written. Here's an abbreviated real life overheard conversation between an advertising director and a largish publication. "You want us to keep buying advertising?" the conversation went, "then knock of the negative comment about our product." Then there's direct gifting of product to influential writers. We should not be naive or surprised about this. Where do we think the positive reviews of stuff that often gets posted here in support of one BFers preference, come from? Objective? Fairly questioned. We as consumers being aware is totally appropriate. Ever notice, wonder how come Zeiss is the only optics brand to have a presence here on Birdforum's front page?

 

[Tringa45]

Advertising is something a publication charges for, a seller pays. Product placement is as normal and common as... whatever. A manufacturer/seller of stuff, (we might "guess" Swarovski here), pays to produce the show then an outlet, magazine, station, decides the value of the content in lieu of its own production or content purchasing costs, makes the presence of branded product acceptable. Product placement often occurs after advertising is purchased. It is a quid pro quo. Common, (imagine it still is) in the old days when magazines ruled. You want photos of your stuff in and among our stories, editorial? Buy some advertising please. Same was and probably still is true of what gets written. Here's an abbreviated real life overheard conversation between an advertising director and a largish publication. "You want us to keep buying advertising?" the conversation went, "then knock of the negative comment about our product." Then there's direct gifting of product to influential writers. We should not be naive or surprised about this. Where do we think the positive reviews of stuff that often gets posted here in support of one BFers preference, come from? Objective? Fairly questioned. We as consumers being aware is totally appropriate. Ever notice, wonder how come Zeiss is the only optics brand to have a presence here on Birdforum's front page?

Yes, Tom, but where you come from everything is commercial and that also applies to Birdforum.
However, one would expect impartiality and freedom from commercial influence from the BBC for instance.
The German regional public broadcasting networks were modelled on the BBC after WW2 and although there is a limited amount of advertising, one would expect neutrality, in particular from the advertising-free international networks, arte and 3sat.

John

 

[GrampaTom]

Yes, Tom, but where you come from everything is commercial and that also applies to Birdforum.
However, one would expect impartiality and freedom from commercial influence from the BBC for instance.
The German regional public broadcasting networks were modelled on the BBC after WW2 and although there is a limited amount of advertising, one would expect neutrality, in particular from the advertising-free international networks, arte and 3sat.

John

Well we do have NPR and PBS... Is there anywhere to hide though? Are we truly safe out there? Ha!

 

[Maljunulo]

Ever notice, wonder how come Zeiss is the only optics brand to have a presence here on Birdforum's front page?

Please tell us why, because I for one, don’t know.

(unless you’re implying that they bought it)

 

[GrampaTom]

I wrote “ever notice, wonder…” I have noticed. I do wonder. I have no inside knowledge. Seems fair to infer there’s some sort of business connection. No other brand is there. Leads to another interesting question - why not?

 

[Pinewood]

Some of the old James Bond movies were thick with paid product placement.

Hello Foss,

That was certainly true but this was seen in a public television broadcast, which is rather more questionable.

Stay safe,
Arthur

 

[tenex]

Please tell us why, because I for one, don’t know.

Zeiss is the official sponsor of Birdforum. It's fairly obvious; that's why there's a ZEISS tab at the top of the page, the Zeiss section is at the top of the list, etc. There must be a significant cost to running this forum, though other ads must also help.