Don't frighten the kiddies -- hide the brands!

UK culture secretary Andy Burnham is reported by the Guardian as saying today that the British government is opposing the European Union directive allowing product placement on UK television. He maintains that product placement risks further harming trust in TV. The IPKat wonders just who trusts TV in the first place -- and how is it that British viewers are able to cope with US movies, which are generally encrusted with strategically placed brands, if they can't cope with the same practice in their home-grown programmes? Merpel says, to be on the safe side we'd better make sure that James Bond drives a generic car in future, in case the British public loses its trust in recorded fiction by thinking that he really owned a branded car.

European Parliament's qualified approval of product placements here
James Bond cars here and here
The greatest product placement film ever made here