E*Trade Babies Star in ABC Special

I guess this YouTube home page ad placement worked, because here I am blogging about an ABC special tomorrow night called “UN-BROKE: What You Need to Make Money,” which, in addition to telling viewers how to get smarter about money, is also a great example of the trend toward product integration — in which advertisers, rather than just buying boring old TV commercials on a show, become part of the show.

In this case, as the headline implies, the E*Trade babies will share screen-time with Will Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, and the team of Christian Slater and Rosario Dawson all of which (yes, including the babies) will be dispensing tips about how to manage money. What’s ingenious about the above clip — or troubling, depending on one’s point of view — is how it essentially elevates advertising to content. The babies “discuss” stocks and bonds with Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, who hosts the show and also appears on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Of course, the intense overlapping of interests here, from E*Trade’s endless hyping of its “babies” to Hobson’s and ABC’s seeming endorsement of the company, can actually make some viewers squeamish. While some commenters to this clip speculated on the state of Hobson’s relationship with George Lucas, one unimpressed viewer said: “Cute but I don’t think I want to invest my money using a company like this. I think their commercials are cute and all but they don’t look serious or like they really know what they are doing. Their image is just too playful.”