After weeks of hype fueled by entertainment news outlets that whetted fans’ appetites with leaked stills and video teasers, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga’s nine-minute mini-movie video for the hit “Telephone” was finally released March 12 to much uproar and controversy — some of it real but mostly, orchestrated.
In an age where BET and MTV relegate little to no air time to actual music videos and artists have begun to shy away from shooting pricey videos that no longer equate to record sales. It makes you wonder: why would the duo create such a costly video that would potentially never be shown on network television in it’s entirety?
It’s likely that the Grammy Award-winning pair took a cue from Madonna, whose “Justify My Love” video, which featured scenes of nudity, voyeurism, sadomasochism and bisexuality, solidified the Material Girl’s notoriety after it was banned from MTV in November of 1990. Their cause was only aided by CNN, who mistakenly reported that Gaga and Bey’s violent and sexually explicit video was banned from MTV (www.mtv.com/news/articles/1633913/20100315/lady_gaga.jhtml). A media frenzy ensued as well as a stampede of curious viewers rushing to the Internet to see what all the ruckus was about.
The traffic alone makes it a win-win for both camps, considering even the most popular music videos aren’t played very often on television and even if they were, wouldn’t be shown anywhere near the more than 20 million times that the uncut version of “Telephone” has been viewed since its debut.
But there’s still the issue of money.
Back in the day, Madonna actually sold $260,000 copies of the too-hot-for TV video for $9.98 a pop, a feat that’s impossible in our current YouTube era. Take a second look, though, and you might notice that the high-priced video has got more advertisements than Times Square (and likely paid for itself with ad dollars)!
Product placement isn’t new but it is the best thing to hit the ad-world since the sliced Wonder Bread Gaga shows off at the 6:37 mark or the Miracle Whip she’s slathering on it five seconds later. And there’s more. If you look closely, you’ll find Lady Gaga’s HeartBeat ear buds from Beats by Dre (1:32-1:35), multiple Virgin Mobile ads (2:06-2:10 and 4:15), Diet Coke (2:17 and 2:55-3:18), the popular dating Web site PlentyofFish.com (4:27 and 4:36), and Polaroid (8:30-8:32).
This type of covert advertising is rapidly becoming the only way that advertisers can circumvent obstacles that jaded TiVo-age television viewers have created. While it hasn’t been confirmed that any money was actually exchanged, it’s hard to deny that the video provides a healthy dose of airtime to these particular brands and services. –brooklyne gipson
