Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

Product placement – the very same advertising technique that is so prevalent in films and things, will soon be made legal on regular television shows – just not on the BBC, evidently. But this is unusual, to me. For a start, I didn’t realise it was even illegal, you see it so much everywhere. In fact, I saw some just yesterday … on the BBC, no less. On Football Focus, we were treated to a look inside the locker room of a team (I can’t remember if it was Manchester City or Arsenal), and everywhere we looked there were Lucozade bottles. Inside the fridge, on the locker room bench, out on the field – everywhere.

I would have assumed that this would have counted as product placement. Even if they were not placed there directly, specifically for us to see them, we still saw them; we still associate the success of Man City with Lucozade. If they drink it, maybe we should too. What’s the difference between voluntary and involuntary product placement?

Regardless, I’m not sure I’m sold on the benefits of product placement in the first place. It’s a similar thing to sponsorship. I’m not going to buy a television just because I see it across the shirts of my local football team. Will I buy Nescafe coffee because I see Simon Cowell drinking it on X Factor?

I don’t know, obviously it must have some success, or there wouldn’t be people queuing up to offer these services. There wouldn’t be predictions of £100m a year profits for the television networks in question.

It’s certainly an interesting one.