You can imagine the conversation in parliament: "oh no no, we can't possibly have any more alcohol advertising, clearly this is not good for the people of Britain. If people see them pics of alcohol they will clearly be influenced, fire down 12 cans of Stella, 3 Bacardi Breezers then end up in a lead role on Street Wars...oh sorry, what's that? Product placement in programmes? Yeeeah, go for it, why not, that's not exploiting anybody. The British public can't possibly be influenced by that"
What happens if brands want to place a product, lets say, Carling, on the pumps of the Rovers? Will this be seen as alcohol advertising or will they get round it by calling it product placement?
Now this is not to say that we are knocking the idea of product placement, it can only help the industry in the current downturn. It will help agencies too, but then again it will be these agencies who see their revenues get smaller as no more alcohol advertising and sponsorship is allowed.
So it could be a sad goodbye to great ads like Surfer, Dambusters and Top Bombin' And hello to: "Two Carling Extra Colds and a bag of Mr Porkys Pork Scratchings please Bett"
Can't help but think of the that Wayne's World Sketch...
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