Sneak ADtack’s old friend Campaign Outsider was on PRI’s Here & Now today, talking about branded entertainment:

Super Bowl’s Pre-Pre-Game Show Brought To You By Rent-A-Center

"Inside the Rings with Troy Aikman" will air on FOX before the Super Bowl pregame show. Rent-a-Center’s “Inside the Rings with Troy Aikman” will air on FOX before the Super Bowl pregame show.

Super Bowl commercials have become must-see TV for many, but some advertisers are finding a new way to get their message to consumers: by producing television shows themselves.

Before Fox begins its official Super Bowl coverage on Sunday, the network will air Rent-a-Center’s “Inside the Rings with Troy Aikman,” featuring Aikman and other NFL superstars, past and present. General Motors is producing “Inside The Vault,” a men’s lifestyle show that will feature GM vehicles. Several companies are also hiring big Hollywood names like Martin Scorsese to produce straight to the Internet mini-films to promote their products.

Here & Now media analyst and B.U. Mass Communication professor John Carroll joins us to discuss this trend of branded entertainment.

Hear here.


John R. Carroll is media analyst for NPR's Here & Now and senior news analyst for WBUR in Boston. He also writes at Campaign Outsider and It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.
John R. Carroll has 305 post(s) on Sneak Adtack