The ‘sponsored feature’ rears its plug-ugly head again

Many televiewers are ticked off by the fact that they have to put up with watching so many commercials in order to be able to enjoy viewing TV shows for “free.” However, most of them have resigned themselves to that reality, and simply grin and bear it.

But how would they feel if, as some people believe, it’s proven that some shows’ “commercial load” exceeds the prescribed and proscribed limit per hour of telecasting? They’d get really ticked off, right?

The government and media groups that are supposed to monitor activities and excesses like this should be more proactive and scrupulous. After all, the welfare of millions of viewers is at stake. Watching inferior shows is bad enough; viewers shouldn’t be shortchanged in other areas, either.

Even if it’s proven that most TV shows don’t screen more than the stipulated number of commercial minutes per hour, however, viewers are still being shortchanged because some programs have found “creative” ways to beat the system without getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

One of those ploys is what is labeled in the trade as the “sponsored feature.” It consists of a portion of a program that ostensibly discusses a trend or event in order to inform and educate the viewer, but is actually a thinly veiled plug for a product or service.

For instance, you have a health feature on, say, polluted drinking water. The first half of the feature documents how many people get sick due to this—then, the feature “slides in” the “solution,” a certain device to purify dirty water.

Even winners

Some features come right out and state the device’s brand name but others stop short of that and fudge their ploy by merely focusing on the device— with the brand name prominently shown.

Whatever the extent of the ploy and the feature’s guile, it’s still a sponsored feature—because the show has been paid, either in cash or in kind, to run it, ostensibly as a public service.

Last month, we surveyed many shows, including some “award-winning” ones, and saw that quite a number of them resorted to this ploy, sometimes on a pretty regular basis. The added sponsored features aren’t included in the time limit for the shows’ approved “commercial load,” so the viewer is being shortchanged twice— coming and going. In addition, the erring show gets a reputation for good “public service,” which it certainly doesn’t deserve!

So, why do some shows blithely resort to this deception? Because they think that viewers aren’t TV-savvy enough to see through it, or don’t care enough to complain.

Well, viewers who do care about quality and fair play should watch out for those erring features—and, when they spot one that obviously passes off a plug as a public service, they should complain to the channel involved, or through the media.

Before you do that, though, make doubly sure that the ploy is real, not imagined or subjectively perceived. Only when we are proactive in our viewing can we get the responsible entertainment and treatment we deserve. Stop being taken for a “sponsored” ride!