Television has become the newest medium for cause marketing, with the Gates Foundation “helping to shape story lines and insert messages” into “ER,” “Law & Order: SVU” and “Private Practice.” The Times reported a couple of weeks ago this was just the beginning:
Now the Gates Foundation is set to expand its involvement and spend more money on influencing popular culture through a deal with Viacom, the parent company of MTV and its sister networks VH1, Nickelodeon and BET. It could be called “message placement”: the social or philanthropic corollary to product placement deals in which marketers pay to feature products in shows and movies. Instead of selling Coca-Cola or G.M. cars, they promote education and healthy living.
While the Gates Foundation works quietly behind the scenes, others are more overt. Seventh Generation’s Jeffrey Hollender, for example, is launching a new television show called “Big Green Lies” to expose greenwashing.
Interesting that a company head takes on this role, though perhaps appropriate since Seventh Generation has lived through its own recent bout of bad exposure. As Hollender says, “I woke up to headlines bearing the type of story you hope lives only in a bad dream.” Now he’ll be on the other side.