So it was that on Nov. 21, World Television Day, I turned on my television, long condemned to inactivity. I had no illusions that during that time when I refused to watch TV its quality would have improved, but one day a year you can waste time, get comfortable on the sofa and allow the official news feed and propaganda to wash over your tired brain. To watch Haylur, to take a break from reality and savour the image of a lawful, rushing forward, prosperous Armenia — what’s more wonderful than that?

But let’s leave behind the lyrical outpourings and move on to the actual topic. The first program that I watched was Lraber (“Messenger”) on H2 (one of Armenia’s Public TV channels), after which, not sparing my health, I was forced to watch Epicenter on Kentron TV, Horizon on Shant TV, Zham (“Hour”) on Armenia TV and Azdarar (“Mouthpiece”) on AR. The thing is a large portion of Lraber was full of hidden advertising, and I found it interesting, whether H2 was an exception or whether other TV stations’ news programs also did the same. With small differences, it was the same everywhere.

Hidden advertising (product placement) is a type of advertising widely applied around the world. Though hidden advertising mainly refers to a trademarked product, the number of cases in the political history of the world where hidden political messages are placed in films, cartoons, written work or news program is not few.

In Armenia’s reality, sometimes it’s hard to distinguish the two close concepts: hidden advertising and PR. Some examples of hidden advertising, which I’ll cite below, might be controversial and considered an example of PR by someone else; however, the purpose of this article is principally to indicate using examples how news programs, for a fee, allocate a huge portion of their broadcasting time to the activity of economic and political entities (these often appear with the same visage). 

 

 

I don’t rule out the possibility that in some cases news programs in the name of media display advertising not for a corresponding fee, but under directive by the authorities or because of an unprofessional journalistic approach, but in our opinion, such cases are rare exceptions and differ somewhat from paid advertising. 

And so, what was news programs’ broadcasting time full of? ArmRusGasProm and two commercial banks were offering a new credit service to natural gas consumers, a Yerevan Djur (Veolia Djur) representative was describing her productive work and urging consumers to collect water before it’s shut off because it’s cheaper than buying bottled water, a representative of one of the mobile communications operators had visited the sporting arena renovated with funds by that company, a solo concert sponsored by the Republican Party of Armenia was being performed, and finally, two very important news: the Prosperous Armenia party, under the heading “Prosperous Health Care,” is offering medical services outside the capital, and MP Mikayel Vardanyan visited the villages in Tavush marz (province) where he handed out money left and right. 

You wouldn’t call this hidden advertising — this is evident contempt for TV viewers. In the name of news reports and instead of it, we are served direct political advertising videos, sometimes without exerting effort to properly disguise them.

One might think that this image was due to the holiday (i.e. World Television Day) and the TV stations, celebrating their jubilee, decided to give themselves a gift, thereby improving their financial situation — but monitoring the airwaves the days following showed that for Armenian TV companies, every day is a holiday.

Advertised over the next few days were new offers by a company selling construction material, one supermarket’s pricing policies, and, of course, “Prosperous Health Care” and Vardanyan’s tours. In the case of the two latter, advertisers were moving according to a well-established logic — more advertising is effective.

All the TV stations in the name of a news piece were disseminating the same promotional videos, which was additional proof that this isn’t journalism but advertising. Advertised in the video were the “Gagik Tsarukyan – Prosperous Armenia party” and “Mikayel Vardanyan” brands and not only through words out of context, but also through the lips of consumers who had used their services. 

In the promotional video, the pitiful consumers, who had been awarded a pair of eyeglasses, a prescription or simply attention, were favoring generous praise with statements similar to those heard by advertisers: “The Armenian womb has not given birth to such a man,” “He has always remembered us during our difficult times,” and “If there were [more] people like you, this country would stand on its feet.”

But it has to be said that, unlike advertisements, in the political ads similarly hidden in news programs, everything is more open and transparent. If in a regular ad, we don’t see the image of the advertiser being hired, but only the original ad and the advertiser’s product, well in hidden political ads, everything takes place in front of the camera. Immediately following the image of distributing eyeglasses or money is the sight of exultant praise of those receiving the glasses and money. 

Parliamentary elections are approaching, the period news agencies milk for all it’s worth, and we will see a lot of ads in the name of news and electoral bribes done in the name of charity. This has already become routine for us. 

But let’s put aside the moral aspect of the matter, that thousands of TV news programs are trying to intentionally deceive TV viewers, by offering advertising in the news section, and turn our attention to the financial aspect: does the money paid for these ads appear in these TV companies’ books or are TV companies “deceiving” tax services like their audience?

Hambardzum Hambardzumyan

The views expressed in the column are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Media.am.