Stephanie Savage, producer and screensaver of “Gossip Girl”, answering to a question by a Los Angeles Time’s journalist (Adam Tschorn) about the big problem of zapping, made an interesting comparison.

The big networks and the studios are trying to compensate the loss caused by the minor presence of the ads spots with product placement. Introducing the products directly within the show, you can avoid “flippering”, that provokes damages not only to the advertisers but even to the channel and the producers themselves thus lessening the fidelity of the public to the programme. It’s almost what’s happening in the music world. The selling out of records is diminishing, thus the managers of the groups and the singers have been thinking about a solution. Many have thought about product placement.

Gwen Stefani e Justin Timberlake for example, have a fashion collection on their own and wear it any time and this is an exceptional promotional way, maybe profitable as much as the records selling out. But Stephanie Savage tells something more and reveals a few techniques and interesting applications. A musician can sign a contract with a fashion Company in order to wear its own clothes and maybe exploit his/her image for ads (this is called Tie in), or can wear them only sometimes and be shooted by the press (Cameo) or once more make a fashion collection with his/her name (partnership).

All these examples should be divided into two big categories, “Inside the Show or Outside the Show”, that is during the concerts or the private life (that most of the time is public). The choices of the different kind of placement are planned by marketing strategies, depending on the budget, on the wish to monopolize more or less the same star or to the desire to be a little bit underground, something that the stylists still like.