Comments on: As Seen on TV

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 13:27:27 +0000

You want to know how much it bothers me? We dont have cable for one. Two we rarely watch regular tv. I only watch Biggest Loser which is loaded with product sponsorship. It bothers me so much that I am thinking of giving up the show. So I totally agree with you. I am so sick of the “programming” of large corporations. My kids only know PBS too. I wish a lot more people would become annoyed with commercials. I know it helps pay for tv but where do we draw the line?

By: Shannon

Shannon — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:58:47 +0000

i think it’s kind of obvious (especially on top chef), when things are from an advertiser. i think it’s easier to take things off the cuff if you know more about certain products. when you’re trying to learn about things (like cookware) yourself, it’s hard to know what to trust, even if there is full disclosure!

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:23:20 +0000

With a show like Top Chef, I don’t think disclosure is really the issue, because it’s not the Washington Post, it’s cheesy (and very entertaining) American commercial TV….and they make it pretty clear they’re shilling for their advertisers. The question for me is where they are on the sleaze meter and at what point do they alienate the faithful. It’s all about common sense, restraint and taste, so to speak.

Sure, it would be nice if they chose not to plug their advertisers at all during the body of show…but it’s not a perfect world and I doubt most of us object to having Glad storage containers used…as long as they’re not shoving them in our faces all night long.

But having a Kikkoman unami ad running repeatedly during an umami episode is not smart and very risky…because it smacks of a too-cozy relationship with the advertiser….and people smell a rat when that happens….which is not a good thing on a cooking show, unless it’s called Ratatouille.

I wonder, by the way, if Kevin, in saying he was reaching for his non-stick Calphalon saucepan might have been poking a little fun at the shameless promotional part of the show. If he wasn’t, and was prompted to say something or, God forbid, paid for the plug – then that’s way over the line and totally amateurish. I don’t think people will put up with that sort of bush league pandering for very long.

Getting on an “American Airlines flight” may be a little clumsy but it’s not a major offense in my book, again, as long as they don’t beat us over the head with it….but using “Kikkoman soy sauce to infuse the umami” on a show that’s supposed to be about high-end cooking sounds a lot like “using Cheese Whiz to make the Gougeres.” It just doesn’t fit, and is an obvious, and potentially life-threatening sell-out.

If they do that too much, they’ll probably have to pack up their knives…and go home.

By: tomprk

tomprk — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:03:55 +0000

Hi Jill, Megan, Mary- Thank you for your comments. It really makes me nervous looking at magazines that we know are in rough shape, but I’m heartened that there are bloggers who take the issue seriously, at least!

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:02:26 +0000

I’ll join the chorus here. It is so important to me that these relationships are disclosed. There are so many variables that go into cooking well and it is great to understand the decisions that went into the selection of cookware, ingredients, etc.

In addition to disclosures on cooking shows, I would love to see similar disclosures in magazines. When I see reviews of great new products, I always wonder how the magazine chose that product and if they’d ever print a review of product they *didn’t* like.

By: Megan

Megan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:04:08 +0000

I immediately noticed when Kevin mentioned using the Calphalon nonstick pan and thought it sounded incredibly out of place. My firts question was whether Calphalon paid for that mention.

As a blogger who does receive and review freebies, I always disclose what I’ve been given. It’s a must in my opinion. A review cannot be taken seriously if full disclosure is not provided. (Like Jill, above, my day job is as an editor as well, so full disclosure is natural to me too.)

By: Jill from North Shore Dish

Jill from North Shore Dish — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:27:05 +0000

Tom, I agree with you 100%. I love to watch cooking shows, and these endorsements really bother me, including the Kikkoman one. It was overkill and annoying. If they had simply asked the chefs to create dishes with umami and then run the ads saying Kikkoman adds umami, they would have achieved the same effect without alienating their audience.

I feel the same way about bloggers. If they receive products for free and write about them, they should disclose that. Otherwise, they are violating the trust they have with their readers, who value their opinion. As an editor (my day job), drawing this line comes naturally for me, and I recognize that many food bloggers don’t have that background, so I certainly understand that this is a learning process for them.