NBC Admits Using "Behavorial Placement" In Popular TV Programs

04/13/2010 • godlikeproductions.com

NBC's 'cynical' mind-control games. The network admits it uses "behavior placement" on popular shows to encourage healthy, eco-friendly habits — and sell ads. First there was product placement. Now there's "behavior placement," the planting of subtle messages in popular TV shows to encourage certain viewer behavior — such as healthy eating or eco-conscious habits — and thereby convince sponsors that their brands will be associated with "feel-good, socially aware" shows. NBC has owned up to the practice, reports The Wall Street Journal, as part of its Green Initiative: If "Tina Fey is tossing a plastic bottle into the recycling bin," the theory goes, audience members will be more apt to do the same. Innocuous or "Orwellian"? This isn't just creepy, it's dumb: The pressure to be eco-conscious has reached a new high, says says Christopher Rosen in Movieline. NBC implies that people are too dumb to make healthy decisions on their own. How "patently stupid." Do viewers really need NBC "tell

1 Comments in Response to NBC Admits Using "Behavorial Placement" In Popular TV Programs

Comment by Justen Robertson

Entered on: 4/13/2010 10:21:59 AM

Aha! So I'm not crazy! Seriously though, this kind of stuff is so overt as to be painfully obvious. I'm not being "subliminally programmed" - I'm being "consciously bombarded". Maybe due to being a part of the "millenial" generation my cynicism for advertising makes me hypersensitive, or maybe I'm just not dumb enough to internalize everything I see on a television show without criticism... but I at least was never fooled here.

Make a Comment (1) • Email Link • Send Letter to Editor