Product placement is big business. The very shows we love push products as the actors go through their motions without saying a word. Still, one doesn't expect to have the fiction of product placement on the morning news. Leave it to Fox to change that.
Fox 5 TV news in Las Vegas's morning anchors are currently sharing their desks with two cups of McDonald's iced coffees. Those coffees aren't being drunk; in fact that would be impossible. Those iced drinks are fake and weigh about seven pounds each.
KVVU news director
Adam P. Bradshaw says the cups that go into place after 7 a.m. when the hard news leaves is a “nontraditional revenue source.”
The station nor McDonald's are talking about the price tag for the product placement but you can be sure it isn't pennies.
Bradshaw stresses that just because the Golden Arches has their little advertising on the desk doesn't mean if a negative story about the fast food giant comes over the wire it won't be reported. After all this is the news.
Don't try telling that to Kelly McBride, the ethics group leader for Poynter Institute. She is worried that now news stations have slipped down a gray slide where conglomerates control what's being pushed out of news anchors mouths.
If that is the case Las Vegas isn't alone on that slippery slope; Seattle, New York and Chicago are all playing the product placement game.
As for Las Vegas? Bradshaw is already thinking of two ceramic mugs of hot black McDonald's coffee will be sitting on the morning news desk come the fall.
McDonald's Launches Product Placement on Morning News
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