News Feature - SAG & WGA Protest

For the last twenty years, product placement has been an accepted evil for the entertainment industry, as an easy, and cheap source of revenue. However, who decides what product goes into which show or film and in what capacity? It's the question put forth during a day long conference in L.A. between industry producers and advertisers. Noticeably absent? The creative community: writers and actors.

Well, maybe absent's a relative term.

Outside the Beverly Hills Hotel, the site of the summit, 200 members of the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America protested being completely aced of the conference which would force mandatory product placement and "stealth advertising" into a production, whether the person writing it agreed or not. Along with the protest, both guilds have threatened that if the negotiations are not made open to the guilds, they'll file a complaint to the FCC.

"For actors and writers who are being forced to shoehorn products into their work -- whether they fit or not -- there are critical issues of creative rights, consultation and fair compensation," Writers' Guild West president Patrick Verrone said. "For the public, there is the serious matter of disclosure. Consumers, parents and all viewers have the right to be told when we are being sold."

When there might be an easier question than Varrone thinks: according to union leaders, the practice was already frequent in many productions, but with rising production costs and new technology competing for the eyes and wallets of America, producers, even those who resisted at first, are relying more and more on stealth advertising to pick up the slack, with no regard for those who'll have to alter their art to accomodate ads.

"We need consultation and eventually we need compensation," SAG president Alan Rosenberg added. "Whatever happened to artistic integrity? When did we lose the right to say yes or no?"

For some, the answer lies in the protest itself. "I question their sincerity and their concerns about creative integrity of scripted programming when they're asking for money and their only examples are reality TV," said an industry source.

Source: Yahoo News