Product Placement

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The day when commercials are indistinguishable from the programs they support finally arrived on March 11.

Food and Drug Administration officials said this week that the agency plans to issue this year proposals regulating prescription advertisements on the Internet, and the agency likely will not differentiate between social media tools.

At the Association of National Advertisers' annual TV & Everything Video Forum, speaker after speaker lined up example after example of shockingly intrusive pacts that placed -- nay, shoved -- commercial messages deep into programming.

The world's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores, and Procter & Gamble, the world's biggest consumer-products maker, are jointly creating a made-for-TV movie, in an effort to promote "family-friendly" alternatives to what they say is increasingly risqué TV fare.

The UK government's plans to green-light product placement in locally produced TV shows is being watered down.

According to a new patent that was just granted to Google, the company could soon extend the reach of its advertising program in Google Maps to Street View.

Plans to allow product placement in British television programmes have sparked opposition not only from doctors and religious leaders but even from advertisers themselves.

The Federal Communications Commission is considering rule amendments that will set a higher standard for disclosure of paid endorsements on broadcast and cable television.

Social media and interactive consumers will take the lead in transforming the multi-screen media landscape in 2010.

Starting Dec 1, bloggers must abide by the Federal Trade Commission's new disclosure rules.