TV Sponsors Find More Visible Outlets for Their Plugs

Television viewers of a certain age remember when many shows had corporate sponsors in their names: “Lux Video Theatre”, “Philip Morris Playhouse” and “Ford Star Revue,” to name a few.

Soap operas were coined as such because of their sponsors--soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble. In TV’s early days, programs and their stars unabashedly plugged their underwriters.

The connection between programming and sponsors is generally less obvious today, but the line appears to be blurring.

Notwithstanding the flameout of this year’s ABC mid-season replacement series starring Dana Carvey--which tried, and failed, to have fun with its ties with PepsiCo brands Taco Bell and Mug root beer--closer links between advertisers and programs are on the upswing. Whether it’s through self-financed programming or so-called integrated promotions or strategic alliances, companies that spend a lot of money on TV commercials are looking for more bang for their buck.

As TV becomes more fragmented--with broadcast networks’ share dwindling and viewers watching a rising number of cable channels--and as markets grow ever more competitive, companies are no longer satisfied with paying big money solely to broadcast commercials to a mass audience that may or may not be open to buying their products, or even watching.

“I think marketers in general are looking at more targeted ways to use a mass medium,” says Joe Opre, manager of sales promotions for Carson-based Nissan Motor Corp. USA. “We’re looking more for a rifle shot to our best prospects.”

Nissan’s silver bullet is “Pathfinders: Exotic Journeys,” a half-hour travel adventure show hosted by model Cheryl Tiegs and featuring guests that include musician and composer Danny Elfman, fashion designer Nicole Miller and novelist Amy Tan. The show started airing on the Rainbow Sports and Liberty Sports/Group W cable sports channels in August. “Pathfinders” plays twice a week in prime time and once on the weekend on Liberty/Group W. Through these outlets, the company is more assured of reaching Nissan’s target audience--men and women with a median age of 40 and median income of $75,000--with precision.

The show, named after Nissan’s Pathfinder sport-utility vehicle, is produced by Beverly Hills-based Dearcom Inc., whose president, Ted Steinberg, pitched the concept to Nissan. Nissan underwrites “Pathfinders” and in turn retains six minutes of ad time per half-hour episode. The cable channels get free programming plus an additional couple of minutes of commercial time to sell.

Nissan says it is sensitive about over-commercializing the content of the show itself. Although the opening credits show a Pathfinder with its name emblazoned across the top of the windshield, “the vehicle isn’t talked about in the show, and most episodes don’t even have the vehicle in them,” Opre says. “You run the risk of eroding something creative and effective by over-commercializing it. The subject matter and name of the show are more than enough exposure for us. ‘Pathfinder’ is listed in hundreds of newspapers around the country, and it’s a very well-done show. We think we’ll ingratiate ourselves with viewers this way.”

The initial 13 “Pathfinder” episodes recently ended. Now Nissan will “evaluate how this went. There’s some talk of doing international episodes, filmed outside North America,” Opre says.

Competitor Subaru is ready to travel a similar road. The Japanese car company is spending $1 million to create a travel TV series named for its Outback vehicle that will air on ESPN beginning in April. Subaru is committed for 24 half-hour segments of “The Subaru Outback Adventure,” which will feature product placements and ads for Subaru. ESPN also gets ad time to sell.

Another show named for a car is the action-adventure series “Viper,” based on the Dodge sports car. The syndicated show originally aired on NBC in 1994; it returned in syndication this fall. As with “Pathfinder,” parent company Chrysler was pitched the idea by the show’s producers, in this case Paramount Television.

“The Viper was the hot new thing, and we realized we could get exposure for it and other Dodge vehicles through this deal with Paramount,” Dodge advertising communications representative Ron Smith says. Dodge contributes numerous vehicles to the show, though Chrysler hasn’t advertised on it.

Smith adds that Chrysler made it clear to producers that they didn’t want the show to have “sex or foul language. . . . It needs to be a good, healthy family show that provides a showcase for our product.”

That’s especially important because Chrysler will probably introduce “Viper”-related merchandise by next year, much of it intended for children, with the profits shared with Paramount. But in general, Smith says, “they don’t tell us how to design cars and we don’t tell them how to direct.”

“Viper” executive producer Danny Belson says the arrangement is a good one.

“They give us their engineering cars that they would normally destroy, and we can blow them up or shoot them up on the show,” Belson says. In an upcoming episode, he said, “I’m going to blow up a used-car lot using a lot of cars like that supplied by Chrysler. For the amount of money we have to spend, that would be impossible without their help.”

Coincidentally, consumer-goods giant Procter & Gamble--maker of everything from cake mix to toothpaste and a longtime equity partner in TV production--also has a stake in “Viper,” as well as in more than half a dozen other shows currently on the air.

P & G Productions (which has been in the business since the 1950s) struck an agreement with Paramount in March 1995 whereby P & G provides financing and retains a stake in shows, in return for gaining access to ad time on those shows, P & G spokeswoman Elizabeth Moore says.

The company can opt out of being involved with any show it deems too racy.

ABC’s family series “Second Noah” is another show aided by its association with a big corporation--in this case Anheuser-Busch. The brewer, looking for an entry into TV production, was hooked up last year with producer Brandon Tartikoff by William Morris agent Sam Haskell. It invested in the production of the pilot, and Tartikoff’s MT2 Productions, along with New World TV (soon to be Fox) and Longfeather Entertainment, now produce the show.

It’s filmed in part at the beer company’s Busch Gardens theme park in Florida. The company no longer has a financial stake in the show, but executive producer Pamela K. Long says it has proved an invaluable partner.

“The other day we were filming in front of the gorilla habitat and I said, ‘Well, I’m going to go to my $8-million set now.’ Because that’s what that habitat cost; it’s like being in the jungle in Africa,” Long says. “I mean, that’s not usually possible on our kind of budget.”

Long adds that because of concern about Federal Communications Commission rules, the producers avoid actually naming or plugging Anheuser-Busch or Busch Gardens in the show. The park is referred to as “the Gardens” by characters, and the Busch name is not seen.

For its part, Busch Gardens gets great press from the “Second Noah” association, and it recently opened a kiosk at the park offering information about the show. In addition, the park’s animal nursery has been renamed the Second Noah Nursery, and it features cutouts of the show’s main characters. Tartikoff is reportedly developing a show with Anheuser-Busch to be set at its Sea World park in San Antonio.

Bob Igiel, executive vice president of the advertising firm Young & Rubicam, says he sees more advertisers becoming interested in links with programming, particularly for special promotions.

“This kind of thing is coming back out of need due to competition,” he says. “An advertiser doesn’t have to sponsor a whole show now to cut through the clutter. They can do a promotion where they’re mentioned in the programming. There’s a lot more varied opportunities today.”