In her recent music video, rapper Ms. Jade is swerving on a dark city street to the beat of her song "Ching Ching." She's behind the wheel of a sparkling, tank-sized Hummer H2, as is a rival racing alongside.
The Hummers seem to get as much screen time as Ms. Jade.
That bit of product placement cost the Hummer's manufacturer, General Motors Corp., some $300,000 -- more than half the expense of the video produced by Interscope Records. It also represented another win for record labels in the catch-me-if-you-can game they're playing with MTV, which has prohibited advertising in videos.
Major record companies, strapped for cash amid flagging CD sales, have been defying MTV, teaming up with advertisers willing to help finance costly videos in exchange for product visibility.
In the past, MTV screeners -- worried that the cable channel's savvy teen and young-adult audience would rebel against that kind of selling -- have forced labels to blur images of products or logos that found their way into videos. But "Ching Ching" and other clips financed in part by corporate sponsors have sneaked in under the radar.
Faced with the record industry's miserable economics, MTV's gatekeepers now suggest gingerly that they may allow some marketing messages in videos -- but only if they decide that a product placement is discreet and fits with a clip's theme or story line. So far, they haven't.
"We're trying to be as sensitive as we can to the labels' financial issues without risking the trust of our audience," said Tom Calderone, MTV's executive vice president of music and talent.
MTV executives have placed the burden of disclosing private advertising deals on the record companies. For now, Calderone said, "we're going to have to trust that they would be upfront and honest with us."
But record executives say privately that they have little incentive to disclose the involvement of outside sponsors.
MTV, they note, has unknowingly aired ad-supported videos from such acts as rhythm and blues singer Tweet and dance-music trio Dirty Vegas without repercussions, though MTV has moved to block tie-ins when executives have owned up to them.
Last year, for instance, the channel ordered that shots of Pepsi Blue be edited out of a video by fledgling rock band Sev after Interscope notified MTV of a product placement deal, channel officials said.
