Page 191 - Communication Commerce and Power The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite

Capital, Technology and the US in an 'Open Market' 181

For example, the use of brand-name products in films can have a
subtle but impressionistic effect on potential consumers. Companies
utilize well-known products and personalities to create positive
associations with apparently unrelated services or products. While
so-called creative rights have long been for sale, recent developments
constitute a marked expansion of these practices. The Domino's Pizza
chain, for example, leased the right to use Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles on their pizza boxes - a direct reference to the Turtles' favorite
food. 65
Also driving these developments is the highly competitive character
of international advertising and marketing. According to Margulis:

Most advertisers are quite conservative because it's their money,
i.e. their jobs are on the line. They have to sell products. Clients
are only interested [in] ... what they can do over the next eighteen
months .... You're either up or you're out .... Honest to God,
they've got to move boxes of razors, or Pepsi, or something.
They've got to move it now. That's why they have promotions
and tie-ins. 66

The general shift away from mass advertising toward direct pro-
gram and event sponsorship is, according to Margulis, all about
companies seeking to 'control the environment.' For TNCs in general,
and globalized advertising-marketing firms in particular, DBS consti-
tutes an opportunity to make 'more efficient buys' in the business of
promoting consumption. 67
These emerging practices have been significant for recently estab-
lished transnational DBS systems because advertising and sponsor-
ships constitute - at least initially - their most important sources of
revenue. The reason for this is that the primary market for most new
direct broadcasting services are not only the already 'developed'
regions of the world but also urban centers in the 'less developed.'
In the latter, for instance, where a 'middle class' is emerging, TNCs
have supported and will probably continue to support DBS systems
facilitating the dissemination of their mass consumer products. News
Corp's Star TV is an example of this. By providing TNCs with
significant discounts, Star TV's original owner, Hong Kong-based
Hutchison Whampoa, secured approximately $300 million in advance
funds. Explaining these commitments, one advertising executive
asked, 'Can I walk away from this, because it might be massive? ...
If the price is right, the advertising buy is right.' 68