When VH1 got started way back in 1985, the cable TV network followed right in the footsteps of its sibling MTV, although focused its efforts at an older demo. While MTV (short for Music Television) scored big with tunes for adolescents and young adults (Men at Work, anyone?), VH1 (an acronym for Video Hits One) was going for the slightly older crowd, playing music videos featuring the likes of Elton John, Donna Summer, and Rod Stewart.

The thirst for an endless stream of music videos on both Viacom-owned channels came to a halt only a few years into their collective existence and shows with varying levels of quality were cranked out. VH1 scored hits with the annotated Pop-Up Video series, the gossipy tell-all bio series Behind the Music, and the artist-centric VH1 Storytellers. The music in both brands has consistently been drowned out since then with a slew of other programming, inspiring the perennial plea by boomers to bring back the music to MTV and VH1 (season three of IFC's Portlandia kicked off with a plotline to take back MTV from tween with its original VJs and news anchor, Kurt Loder.)

VH1, for one, has decided to indicate that shift with a change in its logo (or as the company likes to call it, "tagmark"). 

As announced at the TCA TV Critics Association press tour, VH1 is kicking off the new year by adding a plus sign to the end of its logo, to reflect the changes in the digital world — meshing together the network’s music, pop culture and nostalgia content together — in tandem with adopting a black-and-white look and feel to its visual identity and on-air promos. It's promoting the new look with, naturally, a #plussed hashtag on Twitter.Continue reading...

Ford and NBC have gotten together to launch an unprecedented bit of product placement: a prime-time reality series on network television that is built entirely around a particular product supplied by the brand, in a co-produced show by both parties.

Escape Routes is a six-week show that will air on Saturday nights on NBC and on mun2, NBCUniversal's bicultural network for young Latino-Americans, beginning March 31, with repeats on nbc.com and mun2.com the next day. The mini-series will focus on the adventures of six two-person teams involved in a unique road-trip competition in their 2013 Ford Escape SUVs. Prizes along the way include the red-hot Nike FuelBand. The grand prize: $100,000 plus two all-new Ford Escapes for the winning team.

While acknowledging how P&G and Walmart have collaborated on a made-for-TV family-friendly movies, some of which have run on NBC, Crystal Worthem, Ford's brand content and alliances manager, maintained that Escape Routes is "absolutely groundbreaking." She told brandchannel that "the creative piece of this is centrally launching a product and a brand new, compelling reality show at the same time."Continue reading...

What would Bob Barker think? Snoop Dogg kicked off Celebrity Charity Week on The Price is Right on CBS today by winning more than $70,000 for his charity the Snoop Youth Football League, his youth football league based in Chicago. TPR host Drew Carey and the longrunning game show's producers are matching the contestants' winnings to boost the charitable donations this week, which will also see Jenny McCarthy, Neil Patrick Harris, Chris Daughtry, and Heidi Klum take part for their favorite charities. Below, the Doggfather — a tireless endorser — talks backstage about his latest star turn.Continue reading...

Watch the big diet companies and you might think they're playing a game of who can snag the most high-profile celebrity spokesperson. The latest VIP dieters for hire: Charles Barkley, the NBA pro turned TV sportscaster, who tried Weight Watchers on his own and will now be featured in the company's "Lose Like a Man" campaign which starts the day after Christmas, according to the New York Times. Janet Jackson, meanwhile, was revealed today as the new face of Nutrisystem.Continue reading...

Yes, you read that headline correctly. In its first foray into branded entertainment, Butterfinger (you know: the candy brand) has asked Rob Lowe to direct a 25-minute short film, titled Butterfinger the 13th, that will debut on Oct. 13th, just in time for Halloween. Watch its Facebook page for details on how the actor (and now director) plans to incorporate the public into his shoot this summer.Continue reading...

Love product placement? Live in New York? Coming soon, the Big Apple is one of a handful of cities that will screen Morgan Spurlock's documentary, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

Curiously, and probably to Pom Wonderful's dismay, the deal Spurlock struck with the pomegranate-based brand to name the film Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold has not translated, so far, to theater promotions.

Does this somehow void the deal? Who knows. Maybe Spurlock will fill us in when we finally get that interview he promised us.

In the meantime, what's new in product placement in the US and beyond?Continue reading...

It used to be that the celebrity endorsement game was mainly played in an arena wired with TV, radio and print. Now, with Facebook and Twitter at brands' and celebrities' fingertips alike, the rules of that game have changed. Witness the uproar over paid tweets, as CNN highlights above.

It's a tricky area, which has created an opportunity for firms such as Ad.ly to help brands and celebs navigate the choppy seas of celebrity endorsement in a highly social, visible and transparent era.Continue reading...

If ever there was a product category that has laid claim to celebrities, it is diet programs. Almost without exception, the big name programs – among them Jenny Craig, NutriSystem, and Weight Watchers – rely on celebrity endorsements to pitch weight loss.

More often than not, a celebrity is shown in before and after fashion, going from obviously chunky to deliciously fit. Kirstie Alley, Valerie Bertinelli, Dan Marino, Jenny McCarthy, Marie Osmond, Lynn Redgrave, and Don Shula have done celebrity endorsements for such programs.Continue reading...