NBC Wants You to Do Good. Why? A Look Inside 'Behavior Placement'

By Jason Newman Posted Apr 15th 2010 10:00AM

Think Dwight Schrute becoming a recycling-obsessed superhero on 'The Office' was the work of the show's clever writers? Think again. As an eye-opening Wall Street Journal article revealed last week, the plot line, and many others on your favorite NBC shows, was an advertising plant known as "behavior placement." As the article states: "The tactic ... is designed to sway viewers to adopt actions they see modeled in their favorite shows. And it helps sell ads to marketers who want to associate their brands with a feel-good, socially-aware show. Unlike with product placement, which can seem jarring to savvy viewers, the goal is that viewers won't really notice that Tina Fey is tossing a plastic bottle into the recycle bin, or that a minor character on 'Law and Order: SVU' has switched to energy-saving light bulbs."

The combination of NBC's ratings woes over the past decade, the steady rise of DVRs, Tivos and other commercial-bypassing machines and the general decline of the U.S. economy in recent years has led NBC to try new initiatives in an effort to lure advertisers. In today's age, buying ads may not be the sole route to get your product's message across.

"All the networks are doing things now that they never would have done 10 or 15 years ago when they were kings of the castle," says Brian Steinberg, Television Editor at Advertising Age. "They're allowing more intrusive placements and deeper connections with advertisers. We're at a point now where it's getting more egregious because the networks are economically flailing about for some new model."

With NBC already planning more green story lines and an upcoming week in June during which certain shows will emphasize healthy eating and exercise, the bigger question is not so much, "Is this good for advertisers?" but rather, "Will this actually do anything?"

"It's a totally lame approach in terms of a network or medium assuming that every viewer is a moron and that we're not going to get it," says Dr. Mary-Lou Galician, author of 'Handbook of Product Placement in the Mass Media' and head of Media Analysis & Criticism at Arizona State University. Galician points to a huge difference between a nerdy character like '30 Rock's' Liz Lemon or 'The Office's' Dwight Schrute recycling and the spike in library cards obtained after Henry Winkler's Fonz snagged one on 'Happy Days.'

"The placement has to be associated with a character or activity that is perceived by the viewer as positive," says Galician. "Fonzie was a hero to millions of young people. Liz Lemon is not somebody that we want to emulate. We laugh at her. The behaviors that these people do are hardly things that would incite viewers who don't already do those behaviors to do something. It's pandering and doesn't make much sense. It just rings so false."

NBC was unavailable for comment.

The idea of affecting behavioral change through television is older than you think. In 1989, a decade after the Fonz, Dr. Jay Winsten, Director of the Harvard Alcohol Project, met with writers and producers of such shows as 'L.A. Law,' 'Cheers' and 'The Cosby Show,' asking them to incorporate a new program in the United States: the designated driver. As legendary television writer/producer Norman Lear points out: "Over 160 prime time episodes include[d] subplots, scenes or dialogue telling viewers it's okay to party as long as someone stays sober for the drive home. One year later, a Gallup poll finds 67% of adults surveyed recognize the term 'designated driver.' In 1991, Winsten's new idea [became] a listing in Webster's College Dictionary."

More recently, groups like the Alliance for Family Entertainment, an organization of national advertisers that attempts to increase family-friendly programming, have been instrumental in initiating and promoting programs such as 'Gilmore Girls,' 'Everybody Hates Chris' and 'Friday Night Lights'.

Though most of us are loath to admit it, product placement can have very real and tangible effects on our buying decisions. Would "behavior placement" work in a similar way? Doubtful. As Galician points out, "It's incredibly easy to get people to throw a cigarette in their mouth, but it's incredibly hard to get it out of their mouth once they're addicted."

Translation: For most people, getting that cupcake at Magnolia Bakery because Carrie Bradshaw goes there won't be offset by a Liz Lemon treadmill workout. And while no one can fault NBC for promoting a healthier lifestyle -- few can argue that living healthier has negative consequences -- the focus remains, as always, squarely on the bottom line. That's why ads for Pepsi and Doritos, while contradictory and hypocritical in context to the messages promoted, won't be off the air anytime soon.

The practice has flourished partly because younger viewers (read: the most coveted demographic) have become savvier about when they're being marketed to simply through the need for advertisers to hammer their message across amid an increasing number of distractions and diversions. "It's gotten to the point now where people automatically assume that an advertiser shoved their product in there whenever they see something," says Steinberg, who points to the '30 Rock' episode in which Alec Baldwin and Salma Hayek reconcile over McDonald's Mcflurrys (for those keeping tabs at home -- writers chose the dessert with no involvement from McDonalds).

Steinberg and Galician both stress the need for the viewer to be more aware of what they're watching and what messages are being transmitted to them.

"This is an era in which consumers really need to say, 'Why are people saying or doing that?' 'Why is my content this way?' Is it because it was written this way or because there's a deeper relationship with an advertiser that is subtly shifting the creation of what I enjoy?," says Steinberg.

Galician goes further. "There will always be pushers of various things that are not in our best interests even though they may be entertaining at the moment. It's not the sender of the message. The onus is on us as consumers because the networks will give us what we want. Their devotion is not to us but their investors and sponsors. The programming is just the filler between the commercials."

ABC, CBS, and FOX have yet to adopt the "behavior placement" model. Yet.

Tags: 30 rock, nbc, the office

Comments

(231)

Saturday 17 April

By Ruth

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I, too, have stopped watching NBC. Law & Order was a favorite show of mine until politics were added.

By Jean

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Me too! When I saw the episode with a character that was suppose to be Ann Coulter. I will figure out Ann Coulter on my own, I don't need any brain washing from liberal TV.
I will still watch any of the Law and Order Criminal Intent with Jeff Goldblum though. I just love Jeff. It's too bad the canceled the show he had called "RAIN". It was better than most of their stuff.

By TINA FAY=DUMB

Why would anyone except a left wing loon want to watch or imulate anything that TINA FAY does on T.V.? Her only claim to fame is making fun of Sarah Palin and the OBAMA LIMMINGS eat it up...how sad....

By zuluwarrior225

So the medium has finally moved from the sublime subliminal to the ridiculous in your face behavior modification! Nothing new here, folks, keep moving on!

By Barb

I am so sick of this "green" stuff. It is a lot os BS. I have been conserving for years-water, electric. overbuying and I have recycled for years , too even cleaning roadsice clutter that pigs throw out their car windows . But all this green is just a way to get into our pockets and get more money. Global warming is BS, too. Tha earth is doing what it has been doing for a billion years and the way we live has little to do with it. Just another way to charge us and tax us to death

By jjtoughdoll

We noticed this on shows a long time ago! For example, the iCarly characters are almost always seen going for a healthy snack. "Anyone want a fruit kabob?"

I'm all for it... why not show good behaviors/habits?

By billa518

Doesn't surprise me at all. L&O has had a rabid anti-gun bias for years.

By john

I am as usual unnerved to see that subtle mind control is now part of our daily viewing. I think I will have to go back to reading. What else is subtley being sold to me by my good friends at the network. Who to vote for? What my children should learn in school? Why do they have the corner on knowledge and wisdom. I think they as usual have their own agenda. Glad so many are blindly falling for it. I am lucky I never watch those shows.

By Cherry

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Yea, it's much better to watch fox (faux) news and listen to Palin talk about getting people in the cross hair.

By solomeeo

Most of us see things in tv shows all the time and realize what they are pushing. Earth Day week should be loads of fun......rolling my eyes.

By brad bkb

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I agree, turn off the tv, don't watch anything the liberal media throws out there and don't read liberal and socialist articles found on AOL. AOL will not survive if their news patterns follow NBC, MSNBC and the National Enquirer.

By Kermit

Let me see if I have this right! The "Good Behavior" can influence viewers but, sex and violence on TV have no effect.

By Steve

HA! Right on Kermit.

By Karen

"Though most of us are 'loathe' to admit it,"
"LOATH," Mencken-wannabe Jason Newman, "LOATH." I think you're inserting subliminal messages to readers that it's okay to misuse vocabulary. The sad part is that, unlike you, we're not paid for fulfilling our part.

By Bob Saysmore

So what we're being told in this article is after all these years of telling us violent behavior on TV or in the movies doesn't have an impact on our kids behavior, that in reality it DOES have an impact!

So will TV and movie producers now take responsibility for negative "behavior placement" that they still pump out onto the screen?

By phick11858

Good thought Bob Saysmore. Maybe we could make them legally responsible for the killings and perversion going on in this country. They are a big part of the influence for sure!

I did something kind of stupid the other night. I couldn't sleep so I decided to stay up and search for a good movie, or a good program on TV to watch. After of nearly 5 hours of surfing, I couldn't find anything that was above the intelligence of a moronic chimp.

I do occasionally enjoy the history channel and sometimes PBS has something on it pretty good.

The rest, in my opinion, is a waste of time. So, whatever is done on TV programs does not really have an affect on me.

By Gammy

Steve, if you "surfed" for five hours, you really ARE as stupid as you said you are.

You are so right, Gammy. This was several weeks ago and I still chide myself for being this stupid. Never again, though. I, at least learned my lesson.
Thanks,

By norforklake

It's crap like this, the global warming lie, and Obama's BS that make me want to do just the opposite. I used to recycle, but now I don't and the stupid earth hour and PETA crap just makes me want to turn on all the lights and eat more beef. So NBC and all the rest of you left wing nuts can stick it.

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