Making a PBS Show, and Its Ads Too

[marcehjhn]

The makers of "America in Primetime," a four-week documentary series on PBS that began Sunday, produced more than the show itself: they also produced underwriting spots for Unilever's Dove brand that are helping to pay for the program.The 30-second spots, which run at the beginning and end of the hourlong episodes, are shot in a style similar to the program's. Both the <a href="http://hospital.99mr.com/jiamusidaxuefushudiyiyiyu"><strong>佳木斯大å*¦ </strong></a> spots and the show, made by the Documentary Group, feature interviews. For the series, the creators, writers and actors behind prime-time television shows are interviewed, while the interviews in the underwriting spots are with unnamed Dove marketing and public relations executives, who discuss how the brand tries to relate to changing consumers.Tom Yellin, president and executive producer <a href="http://hospital.99mr.com/qinhuangdaopeisenzhengxin"><strong>秦皇岛沛森 </strong></a> of the Documentary Group, which approached Unilever about the arrangement, said it was a "natural opportunity" for a program about the creation of commercial prime-time television to feature underwriting from a longtime advertiser in prime time. Rob Candelino, Dove's marketing director, said the brand was interested because of "an incredibly good alignment between the content of the documentaries and the messages Dove advocates for every day." Episodes of "America in Primetime" focus on character archetypes as they have evolved through the years: "The Independent Woman," "The Man of the House," "The Misfit" and "The Crusader."Such crossover producing is increasingly common in commercial television. Unilever itself created a series of commercials for several brands, including Dove, that were made in the 1960s "Mad Men" vein, and ran during that series on AMC, but several public television executives said they couldn't recall a similar arrangement in a PBS prime-time documentary.The style <a href="http://hospital.99mr.com/zhejiangwenzhouhepingzhen"><strong>温州整形医 院</strong></a> was deliberately adjusted to make clear the distinction between the underwriting spots and the series, Mr. Yellin said. In the program, interviewees talk directly to the camera; in the spots, the executives are shot from the side. "We didn't want there to be any confusion," he said.