ER Fallout... very interesting article from Washington Post

[Guest guest]

No Pulling The Plug On 'ER' Spot

By de Moraes

Saturday, February 17, 2001; Page C01

On NBC's medical drama " ER " this week, Dr. struggled to save the

life of a beautiful little boy he at first thought might have meningitis.

The

disease kills 10 percent of the children who contract it and can leave those

who survive it with hearing loss or paralysis. Turned out, the child had

measles, which he contracted because his yuppie lawyer mother never had him

immunized.

" That's not too bad, right? " the mom asked Dr. Deb Chen, played by Ming-Na,

when she heard the diagnosis.

" One in 500 kids dies of measles, " Chen shot back, disgusted.

Cut to commercial.

And, lo and behold, it was an ad from American Home Products -- parent

company of Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories -- urging parents to have their

children

immunized against meningitis with a new vaccine they have developed,

Prevnar.

Icky coincidence?

Nope. Serendipity.

NBC spokesman Cory Shields says that the advertiser obtained a screening

report on the episode, which is pretty standard practice. Networks provide

screening reports to give advertisers plenty of time to bail out of

controversial programming, having learned it's better they do so with lots

of

notice rather than when it's too late to find a replacement sponsor.

Screening reports are also used by advertisers to check that, say, their

spot

for a new SUV isn't in an " ER " episode in which a family is wiped out in an

SUV wreck.

" They're more to rule out something that is inappropriate than something

that's appropriate, " Shields said.

But in this case, American Home Products saw the story line and made the

request to be the very first ad in the very first ad break after Dr. Chen

finds out that the child had not been vaccinated, Shields said. Since the

real estate had not been assigned to another advertiser, NBC complied with

the request, he said.

Hence, the creepy juxtaposition on " ER " Thursday night.

The advertiser, however, is very happy with the results.

" We're advertising to the parents of young children, and so we make ad buys

in programs that parents watch, and 'ER' is one of them, " said de

Vane,Wyeth-Ayerst spokeswoman.

" If the subject matter is relevant to the product, it's a more powerful ad.

In this case we had already committed to 'ER,' and when the producers let us

know [the episode] had to do with immunization, it was serendipitous. "

A spokesman for Warner Bros. Television, where " ER " is produced, said that

" the script was written a while ago and there was no intention of a

commercial tie-in. "

Editorial:

Co-inky-dink... I THINK NOT!

A Jeffs mom