Rocketboom subtleties

by on September 13, 2006

Did you see Phillip Torrone, of Make Magazine, walking around in today’s Rocketboom? Did you ask yourself “did Google pay Joanne to wear a Google Video shirt?” If you did, you’re an astute Rocketboom viewer.

That gives me some ideas for my own show. Maybe I should charge companies to wear logo’ed clothing? And maybe I could have bloggers walk around in my videos just to see if anyone notices? :-)

  • Allen Jones
    Scoble the sycophant...your non-stop self absorbtion is amazing. For your video shows, why not wear a Scobleizer t-shirt? The t-shirt design could be a photo of yourself wearing a Scobleizer t-shirt. How cool would that be.
  • That Scoble laugh could sure sell a lot of ice cream…….
  • Christopher Coulter
    Ahhh product placement within Video TV shows is the future, Sour Patch in Kyle XY, Sunkist in Veronica Mars, Google T's and other geekwads, within Vlogs and misc. popular EUCCs.

    With Tivo's and Torrents, it's survival, that is if such doesn't kill the flow of the show, over-agressive placements kills ratings quick.
  • Wow, I didn't think anyone still watched Rocketboom after the Melons of Wrath left. Live and learn, I guess.
  • Laurens
    Logo'ed clothing as a plug...

    In Belgium there's a 'folk hero', JeanMarie Pfaff - used to be the goalie for the national soccer team and I think he played for BayernMunchen also -, who's been doing this for years IRL. Everytime he comes on TV you see him with some text embroidered on the collar. And he's constanly plugging his sponsors in whatever conversation.

    I don't think he lost money on those deals, if you catch my drift...
  • I'm always amazed that people don't notice this more. Even if it's not paid for, I'm sure it's thought about. When I go to a conference I am aware that pictures will be taken and I sometimes think about what shirt I'm wearing. It's a minor thing, but it certainly enters the brain once and a while.
  • Bill Cosby did the same thing while on television (some years back) - wearing (at no charge) the sweatshirts of various schools and universities.

    See you at Converge South.
  • Yeah Robert, I e-maild Phill about 3 minutes after I saw it. Phill's reply. . .

    -----
    pt
    to me
    More options Sep 13 (16 hours ago)
    neat! hah!
    -----

    Phill a genius of few words
  • Tom
    Wouldn't that be copying? Surely you could do something more original than that?

    How about inserting logos, or fragments of logos in incongruous places around the place.

    My brother manufactured himself a brilliant T-shirt which looked like a set of chocolate wrappers (Candy Bars to you US folks.), it looked a bit odd, but was colourful. You didn't notice anything until you read it and discovered he'd arranged the entire thing to be chock full of obscene comments. Marvellously subversive.
  • You know about Pirillo's Rent My Chest, right? He has yet to go sponsored-topless at a conference though.
  • Well, according to the Sponsorship page all ads are 'post-roll' and 'no product placement'.

    http://www.rocketboom.com/sponsorship/
  • And who noticed that Scoble points out Rocketboom's subtleties on the 13th and the very next day Rocketboom does subtitles. Hmm. I wonder just who is paying attention to whom.
  • Christopher Coulter
    Melons of Wrath, hahah. I actually liked her charm too...heard she was being fizzled by ICM, but now that lawsuit could tar it all. Boy, what drama. The new Rocketboom doesn't have that random weirdness, too pre-fab. Not even close to TV level, yet not strange enough, sorta in between, in a word: boring.

    Do not let guests rammmmmmmble on, this is why we have things called EDITING. And once again, STEADICAM, if I hafta repeat that, I will screeeam. Also FRAMING, ever hearda that? Gosh...dweebs with cameras.
  • I believe product placement can work in some shows when the content is more on the entertainment side - you know all those soaps and sitcoms just try to mess with your psychology as part of the fun anyway - but when it comes to producing information with integrity, it's more important, I think, to separate the hidden messages.

    Your post is a perfect example of why. As Chris points out above, you can be sure that we dont do product placement in Rocketboom. If I was not willing to make that claim, or didn't say one way or another, people would continue to question our intent and soon wonder if its really what we wanted or if its just what we needed. I dont think its good to have your audience always wondering about your own intent.
  • Stowe Boyd is sponsored by Jeff Pulver, I believe. There you go for product placement.
  • jeffpulver
    Jeremy - you are correct. I was the winning bigger on providing clothing for Stowe. Funny how the only thing we found to send to him has the letters "VON" on it.
  • Scoble. Would you wear a Save André Hedetoft t-shirt if i sent you one?

    You see I just created a game where you get to play with my real life over the internet in the quest to turn me into the obvious geek movie director. The first level is about helping me sell 1000 Save André Hedetoft t-shirt and when completed I will go and tattoo in Geek Movie Director on myself and then use the money earned to create one hell out of wow short geek movie! Check it out over at http://www.andrehedetoft.com

    What do you say?

    André Hedetoft
    Movie-geek
    Just created a game where you get to play with my real life over at http://www.andrehedetoft.com
  • Andrew: I'd be up for it! Send me email at robertscoble@hotmail.com and I'll arrange it.
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