Toyota Life Articles

The New York Times
November 2, 2007
By Stuart Elliott

The efforts by Madison Avenue to counter ad-skipping has revived a pervasive ploy from the early days of the medium as well as from the “golden age” of radio: integrating products into the plots of programs, a practice known as branded entertainment.

Also under way, it seems, is a comeback for another form of old-school peddling: live commercials, or commercials produced live on tape, delivered by the stars or hosts of shows.

The familiar faces who once upon a time did double duty include Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Mary Tyler Moore, Frank Sinatra, John Cameron Swayze and Mike Wallace.

And, of course, Virginia Payne, who was “Ma Perkins” on a radio soap opera that was sponsored for 23 years by Procter & Gamble’s Oxydol detergent.

The newcomers joining their ranks are Ellen DeGeneres, who will for the first time deliver a commercial in an episode of her syndicated talk show, and Glenn Beck, who is reading the “Brought to you by” information for sponsored segments of his program on the Headline News cable network.

On the episode of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” scheduled to run today on local stations around the country, Ms. DeGeneres will personally deliver a pitch for the Toyota Highlander Hybrid sport utility. A regular commercial for the Toyota — a first-time advertiser on “Ellen” — is also planned for the episode.

In the live-on-tape spot, which lasts about 30 seconds, Ms. DeGeneres, joined by a Highlander Hybrid onstage, will humorously compare her show to the vehicle.

She will talk about how a “center stow seat” in the second row of the sport utility can be folded down for easier access, then cut to members of her audience in the second row of the studio performing a sight gag by folding laundry.

Since early October, Mr. Beck has been delivering the sponsor “billboards,” or identifications, for two advertisers, Travelers insurance and Select Comfort mattresses.

For instance, before and after an upbeat segment called “Spoonful of Sugar,” Mr. Beck says it is “brought to you by Travelers,” then adds: “Your risks can change quickly. Make sure your insurance stays in synch.”

The executives behind “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” say it was her idea to present the commercial personally during the taping of the episode.

Ms. DeGeneres considered it “cool, in a retro way,” said Hilary Estey McLoughlin, president at Telepictures Productions, a unit of Time Warner.

“She loved it when Jack Paar and Ed McMahon did it,” she added, referring to the venerable host and announcer for NBC shows like “Tonight.” (In June, Jay Leno and John Melendez of “Tonight” delivered a funny commercial, live on tape, for a sponsor, Garmin International.)

Michael Teicher, executive vice president for media sales at the Warner Brothers Television Group, another Time Warner unit, called the commercial a collaborative effort. It involved Ms. DeGeneres, the writers of her show, Toyota and the Toyota agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, part of the Publicis Groupe.

“Entertainment is absolutely critical to making it an advertising opportunity,” he said, because if viewers perceive it as over-commercialized they will reject it.

Based on the results of the initial foray, the executives said they would consider selling similar spots to other advertisers but cautioned that if done too often, it would lose what Mr. Teicher called “its level of exclusiveness.”

After the episode runs on local stations today, the commercial Ms. DeGeneres delivers will also be available on her show Web site, ellentv.com on YouTube.

At Toyota Motor Sales USA, Kim McCullough, corporate manager for marketing communications, said there have already been discussions “about doing this again with Ellen,” who is “a big Toyota supporter,” she added, and drives a Toyota Prius.

“It’s a return to the way things were done a long time ago,” Ms. McCullough said, in an attempt to “keep people engaged with the program and therefore the commercials.”

Mr. Beck’s live delivery of the billboards on his show is also a throwback. The practice has almost entirely disappeared from television, because of a desire to draw a sharper line between advertising and the contents of newscasts. (There are still some radio newscasters who deliver spots, like Charles Osgood on CBS.)

“We’re looking at different ways to give our advertisers more value,” said Greg D’Alba, executive vice president and chief operating officer for sales and marketing at CNN, owned by Time Warner.

Mr. Beck can deliver the billboards, Mr. D’Alba said, because he is the host of a “point-of-view” program rather than a news program. He said he did not expect viewers to be confused into thinking that a newscaster was reading commercial copy.

On news programs on Headline News, and on its sibling network, CNN, the sponsor billboards are spoken by off-screen announcers rather than the men or women on camera.

Other point-of-view shows on which the hosts can deliver live billboards are “Nancy Grace” and “Showbiz Tonight,” Mr. D’Alba said, adding that so far it has taken place only on Mr. Beck’s show.

Jennifer Wislocki, a spokeswoman for the Travelers Companies, said the company “purchased the sponsorship of the ‘Spoonful of Sugar’ segment” as part of a buy of commercial time on CNN and Headline News. Travelers has “a strategy of focusing on news-content programming,” she said, adding that “we didn’t hand-pick who reads that billboard” or “specify who would read it.”

Her reticence might stem from a flap over comments Mr. Beck made on Oct. 22 on his syndicated radio show about the victims of the wildfires in California.

“I think there is a handful of people who hate America,” Mr. Beck said. “Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.”

Ms. Wislocki, who was in San Diego helping Travelers assist customers who suffered losses in the fire, said the company had received no complaints about its sponsorship of the Beck segment on television after his comments on radio.

One reason advertisers used to love having actors and newscasters deliver their commercials was the possibility of getting more than they paid for. Often the talent would contribute additional remarks, not in their scripts, about the sponsors.

Ms. DeGeneres is reviving that tradition, too. Ms. McCullough of Toyota and the “Ellen DeGeneres Show” executives said that Ms. DeGeneres spontaneously decided to end the episode atop the hood of the Highlander Hybrid, making a joking sales pitch.

Back in the day, that was called a “Lucky Strike extra,” as in Lucky Strike cigarettes, the sponsor of the radio show “Your Hit Parade.”

The phrase referred to a song that was played on the show even though it was not on that week’s chart of hit tunes. It eventually entered the vernacular as a synonym for a bonus or something extra.