Making a scene over covert advertising

The youth program "Exit," which momentarily aroused an uproar when it was broadcast on television's Channel 10, recently found itself a new home - cable TV's Channel 3, which at the moment is expanding its original productions. In honor of the transition, the program has been refreshed, and it has even received new sets. The designers to whom the production company, Ananei Tikshoret, turned received a clear message: The new look of the youth program must be "a look of Orange," the cellular phone company Partner. The set has to "speak in the aesthetic language of the brand name" and "integrate its values."

The instructions did not remain general. The company's marketing staff participated in the production sessions and a designer from Orange was also involved at a later stage for the graphic design work. This was entrusted in the end to Nurit Koniak, a designer who is the sister of the current editor of the program, Yonatan Koniak.

The results are there to see every day on the screen: The set in the studio, which can be seen during the entire program behind the frenetic presenters, is full of orange figures, alongside of whom are orange captions in the familiar font and the advertising language of Orange, for example "Cool," "Enjoy" and "Sexy." Orange is, of course, connected by a commercial contract to the production of the program (which includes the use of the company's G3 devices as part of the program's content).

Ayelet Rahav, vice president in charge of marketing at Ananei Tikshoret: "There is cooperation between `Exit' and Partner, which is based mainly on cellular content. Such cooperative agreements are not new, and today we see them in most of the programs in Israel and the world over. We don't consider it something new, as long as it is done in a minor key that accords with the content."

Threatening changes

The covert advertising by means of the set and the look of the program is part of the contract, although this is forbidden according to the regulations of the Council for Cable TV and Satellite Broadcasting. The cable and satellite channels are legally forbidden to be involved in advertising altogether, because they exist from subscription fees.

The leading set designers in the country - art directors in the lingo of the television and film industry - are facing a rapidly changing situation. Some of them feel uncomfortable with it and have professional doubts. They say that raising money from commercial companies for production purposes has long been an accepted norm, but now this system is threatening to change everything. In an increasing number of productions, the ones with power and influence are the commercial companies, primarily their marketing and advertising staff, and the designers are working according to new dictates. This method of covert advertising is called Look and Feel in the advertising world - creating a look and feel identified with a product, meant to send the advertising messages and to arouse identification with the brand without openly announcing this to the audience.

Avi Fahima is one of the well-known and busy set designers in the industry. He is responsible, among other things, for the sets in the films by Dover Kosashvili ("Late Wedding," "Gift From Heaven"), the film "Or" ("My Treasure"), "The Syrian Bride" and "Walking on Water," and in a series of television programs, including "Bulldozer," "The Models" and "War Room." He admits that the phenomena he is encountering raises questions about his freedom to create and about fairness to the viewers. For the time being, he has no unequivocal answers.

"We're a small industry," says Fahima. "The budgets here are low, and it's presumably legitimate to pick up the phone to a few companies to have them support this art and receive covert advertising in exchange. So instead of making scenery for $10,000, we'll make scenery for $20,000, and put a few bottles of water into the picture, no big deal. That was done, for example, in `War Room' on Channel 2. Cellcom paid a lot of money so that we would use their appliances, and the contract specified how often their phones would be seen. I say to myself, it's a drama series that cost a lot of money, and if that contributes to its production, I consider it a positive thing.

"However, I was involved in things such as `My Music Magazine,' a music news program on the 24 music channel, which is paid for by Coca-Cola. I was asked to design a set in the shape of a can of Cola, and there were discussions as to whether the wave shape was precise, or whether it should be changed. I tried to say gently, `We're getting a little carried away, aren't we?' We've changed from television that is trying to increase the budget to television that is entirely funded. It turned out good in the end, but I felt that I was selling a product rather than working at what I like - creation and design."

The Channel 24 music channel replies, "The program `My Music Magazine' is broadcast with the funding of the Coca-Cola corporation. [The company logo] appears on the screen, and there's no attempt to hide it. We received permission to do so from the cable and satellite council, after we were obliged to include the caption `funded by Coca-Cola' at the beginning and the end of the commercials."

Covert advertising is one of the controversial issues today in the television industry. Designing sets with the Look and Feel method is only one of the means that serve marketers to promote their messages in exchange for a payment to the broadcasting company or the production company. (The advertising in "War Room" described by Fahima does not belong to this category, but involves using products in a series as part of its plot.) Although infiltrating commercial messages into programs is absolutely forbidden according to the regulations of the Second Authority for Television and Radio, which oversees channels 10 and 2, and according to the regulations of the Council for Cable TV and Satellite Broadcasting - a long-standing policy of the supervisors of ignoring this, and concealment on the part of the broadcasting bodies, has in the last two years caused the field (which is also called "marketing content") to flourish.

Now the supervisory bodies are finding themselves facing an irreparable situation. The Second Authority council has already decided to ban covert advertising completely, for fear of undermining the independence of the programs and because of the influence on the viewers, and in recent months has even taken several steps on this issue. For example, the franchisee Keshet has been forbidden to broadcast the competition "Paper, Scissors, Stone," which was designed to promote a mineral water company; Channel 10 was forced to change the format of the program "Deal or No Deal," with Moran Atias, which was designed entirely to promote lottery tickets and an Educational TV program about marketing, "Marketing File," which was supposed to be shown on Channel 2, was changed completely after the cancellation of the participation of commercial groups in its preparation.

The franchisees received an unequivocal order to stop any form of covert advertising, and in spite of that, Keshet's program "A Star is Born" - perhaps the most prominent example of the use of the Look and Feel method, for the benefit of Coca-Cola and Cellcom - is still studded with purple stars. In the design of the set of the new program for this season "An Evening is Born" - a preliminary program to "A Star is Born" itself - an order was given to design the entire studio according to the logo of the program, in the spirit of the advertising language of Cellcom. The result is flagrant.

Keshet responds: "The color purple has accompanied `A Star is Born' since its inception, including during its first season, in the version `We Won't Stop Singing,' before the period of sponsorship under discussion. The cooperation with Cellcom was carried out in accordance with the regulations of the Second Authority, and is based entirely on a complementary world of content on the cellular phone."

As opposed to the Second Authority, the cable and satellite council has a different policy, which pleases anyone who profits from covert advertising. The chair of the council, Yoram Mokedi, believes it is impossible to stop the phenomenon entirely, and therefore it should be allowed in programs where the possible damage to content is limited; in other words, entertainment shows, telenovelas and reality shows. Another rule supported by Mokedi - informing the audience before the program and after it that it includes commercial messages.

Recently, Mokedi drafted a set of regulations in this spirit, which was designed to allow covert advertising on the 24 music channel and on Israel Plus ("targeted channels," which are broadcast on cable and satellite, but are funded by advertising). Mokedi says he also instructed all the other channels under his supervision to stop covert advertising, but it is doubtful this order is really being carried out.

Set designer Ronen Levin ("Odetta," "A Wonderful Country") admits that like Fahima, he encounters requests "to integrate the values of the brand name" in some of the sets he designs. "Sometimes there is even an opposite situation," he says, "where they ask me not to use a certain color because it's identified with the competitors. Orange has become an accursed color. If I make an orange vase, they tell me - but they'll think it's `Orange.' Sometimes I feel that I have no colors left on my palette, because they have all been taken over by brand names."

The two councils - the Second Authority and the Council for Cable TV and Satellite Broadcasting - have agreed between themselves that they will formulate a joint policy regarding covert advertising, but for the time being, they are sending contradictory messages. The marketers, for their part, are continuing with their vigorous activity, and are establishing a new situation on the screen.

"For the viewers, there are accepted rules of the game on television," says Fahima. "You see a commercial, and you know what it is. You can decide whether to watch, and you know you should relate to it with skepticism. The moment the advertising turns into the thing itself - that stinks."

But Fahima himself has doubts. He thinks the integration of commercial companies in "War Room" is actually a positive example, because "the dosage was reasonable, a respectable sum of money was given, and everyone gained, including the audience." He describes the routine process of work on a program or a series. "I get a budget from the producer, and hear from the director and the editor what they want. Usually, there's a clash, and the budget is only half of what they want. Then begins a process of finding sponsorships and sources of funding. The producers turn to the companies, they have meetings, and the company that offers the best proposal is in. That's work that takes months, to obtain the missing half. Things are not always anchored in contracts, in some cases they agree to give us products simply so they'll be on the set, in other cases, they insist on a certain number of close-ups.

"This entire situation is natural, because there are budgetary constraints, and everyone wants to make a profit; but the phenomenon that other designers and I are noticing is that the moment that a broadcasting body has given a certain sum for production, let's say $100,000, and an excellent series was made - in the next season, the production will receive only $80,000, and after that, only $60,000. My feeling is that the more successful the broadcasting groups are, the less money they have for making television. Every year, the franchisees report large profits, and every year, for some reason, we get less money for making programs. We, the creators, are partly to blame for this situation, because we agreed to create ex nihilo. To create something worthwhile with a meager budget, and then there's no way back."

The solution, in Fahima's opinion, is to set clear regulations "that will define limits. We have to let the viewers understand that there is advertising here, rather than controlling the audience in a manipulative manner." He has difficulty, however, deciding where the border lies, and hands the ball over to the Second Authority. "The authority decided that it's forbidden to show the name of a company, but it didn't forbid creating a purple look. The rules have to be precise. The franchisees receive the opportunity from the Second Authority to make a lot of money, and the group that provides that opportunity has to set the limits as well. The fox cannot be allowed to guard the chicken coop."

	The "Exit" set. The designers received a clear message: The look must "speak in the aesthetic language of the Orange brand name." Inset, designers Fahima, left, and Levin. "I feel I'm selling a product rather than working at creation and design," says Fahima.