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StumbleUponIn the Soup at The View: ABC allows corporate sponsor to buy talkshow content
11/20/00
Blurring the lines ever further between programming and advertising, ABC's The View recently agreed to turn eight shows into paid infomercials for Campbell's Soup.
Co-host Barbara Walters, one of ABC's most prominent news personalities, joined her colleagues in introducing pro-Campbell's themes into the talkshow's discussions, with Walters asking in one show, "Didn't we grow up...eating Campbell's Soup?" Her colleagues responded by breaking into a chorus of the "M'm! M'm! Good!" jingle. In addition to developing special soup segments, The View assured Campbell's that "hosts would try to weave a soup message into their regular on-air banter" (Wall Street Journal, 11/14/00).
Product placement on talkshows isn't new, but Disney-owned ABC may bebreaking new ground in having one of the country's best-known journalistsshill for soup. ABC claims this kind of shameless hucksterism is OK because The View is an entertainment show, and Walters is "able to wear many hats"(Wall Street Journal, 11/14/00).
The home of free-market proselytizer John Stossel (seehttp://www.fair.org/media-outlets/stossel.html), ABC has increasingly comeunder fire for the diminishing credibility of its news division.
Last March, ABC News suffered much embarrassment after assigning actorLeonardo DiCaprio to interview President Clinton about environmental issues.That same month, Diane Sawyer's interview of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez--during which the journalist stood on her head in an effort to engage withthe child-- was widely criticized as exploitative and irresponsible. Aroundthe same time, Disney bought a stake in Pets.com and the company'ssock-puppet mascot started appearing as a "guest" on Disney-owned media,including ABC News's Good Morning America and Nightline.
David Westin, president of ABC News, is known for having killed a piece byABC reporter Brian Ross investigating pedophilia at a theme park owned byDisney, ABC's parent company. Westin also reportedly killed a story aboutthe sweatshop factories producing ABC personality Kathie Lee Gifford'sclothing line. One ABC producer says that the need to avoid news storiesthat might displease Disney "comes up all the time" because "no one herewants to piss off the bosses" (The New Yorker, 8/14/00). Apparently, no onewants to offend the advertisers, either.
Daytime talkshows have occasionally featured hard-hitting consumer info inthe past, and now play a significant role in the presidential elections as aprime spot for candidate interviews. Apparently, none of this deters Disneyfrom turning The View into a program-length commercial.
ACTION: Please contact ABC News and insist that its journalists should notparticipate in talkshows that allow corporate sponsors to purchase theirdiscussions, regardless of whether they are in the news or entertainmentdivision.
CONTACT:
ABC News
47 W. 66th Street
New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-456-7777
Fax: 212-456-4297
netaudr@abc.com
See FAIR's Archives for more
on:
Disney/ABC
Advertiser Influence
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