Exclusive corporate sponsorship of a television program is not a unique concept. It’s roots run all the way back to the orginal soap operas on tv and radio and is done – from time to time – on commercial television today, usually as a PR stunt.

So what makes Philips’ decision to “buy out” a 60 Minutes telecast unique is that rather than running commercial messages in all of the available commercial space in the program, the advertiser has decided to “give back” half of the time to allow the news magazine to air longer stories.

This looks like a case of “less” definitely being “more.”

AdRants and AdPulp have both covered this item. We’ll keep our eyes open to see if this might be a trend worth watching.

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