In a move that's raising more questions about the blur between TV shows and their advertisements, toymaker Mattel is making its own appearance on the Emmy-winning NBC sitcom--in the form of a new Cher doll.
During the episode, the doll will play sidekick to Jack, whose obsession with the forever-morphing pop legend has been an ongoing gag since Will & Grace first debuted in 1998. The real, live Cher, meanwhile, will pop up at the end of the episode, all part of the network's November sweeps stunt programming.
But according to The New York Times, the doll's appearance was part of a collaboration between NBC, the producers and writers of Will & Grace, Mattel and Ketchum Entertainment Marketing, a branch of Ketchum public relations. Mattel arranged for the sitcom to use a $60,000 prototype of the doll, and it also scheduled promotions of a special Website, where Cher fans can receive email updates prior to the miniature pop legend's arrival in stores next May.
"We were talking to our client Mattel, which was launching this doll with a finite budget," Ketchum senior v.p. Mark Malinowski tells the Times, "and in a brainstorming meeting we mentioned Will & Grace because the character of Jack loves Cher. We thought it would be great to include the doll in a plot line of an episode because it would be organic, playing off something that already exists."
The Times labels the move "emblematic of the rapidly blurring line between programming and peddling" in entertainment--what with the shameless product placements on CBS' castaway game show Survivor ("Kelly, this Bud's for you!") and more recently, when the ladies of ABC's daytime talk show, The View, began plugging Campbell's Soup products.
"We're getting to the point of one long, seamless commercial with a few scattered scenes in between," warns Gary Ruskin, director of the watchdog group Commercial Alert, in the Times. "As TV becomes more competitive and the profit motive gets stronger and stronger, we see an inevitable race to the bottom.
"It's inevitable that programs will look more and more like infomercials," Ruskin adds.
For its part, NBC says the doll's appearance shouldn't be seen as product placement. Nowhere in the episode is Mattel mentioned, and producers for the show insist the doll simply fit into an already-written script for the show.
"There isn't any kind of forced 'product placement,' at least from this side of the fence," producer Tim Kaiser tells the Times. "It was just a natural fit," he added, seeing how Jack's affinity for all things Cher "is a thread that is running through the show already."
Still, Mattel is likely to score some invaluable publicity for its new doll. As a part of NBC's powerhouse Thursday-night lineup, Will & Grace has averaged 19.7 million viewers this season and remains in Nielsen's top 10.
Malinowski also admits that the doll's appearance will no doubt reach a major group of consumers who would actually consider owning a Cher doll: gay men.
"Let's face it," he told the Times. "They're the ones who are going to buy the doll."