Football, Beer and Product Placement in the Men's Camp?

Was Sat.1 permitted, in the context of product placement in the pre- and post-broadcast segments of the UEFA Europa League Final 2011 transmission, to carry out so-called 'live switches' to an advertising event of a brewery, where a well-known football expert is interviewed while being seen alongside four men selected through a competition who are wearing sweatshirts of the brewery, and in which, among other things, full beer glasses and bottle emblems of the brewery are shown and the beer brand is mentioned several times?

The competent State Centre for Media and Communication at the time of the broadcast did not share this view and objected to the switch to the 'Hasseröder Men's Camp' because, although product placement in the context of sports broadcasts on television is permissible, it is, among other things, subject to the requirement that the product is not unduly emphasised, and this threshold was exceeded here. Sat.1 took legal action against this and was successful at first instance, but then failed in the appeal, as the Higher Regional Court (OLG) was of the opinion that the product had been emphasised beyond the limits of editorial requirements or the necessity of depicting the reality of life.

Court Decision

The Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG)Judgment of 23.07.2014, Az.: 6 C 31.13 – Press release) upheld the appeal by Sat.1. Undue emphasis should not be assumed merely when the advertising purpose becomes apparent in the broadcast content, but rather only when the editorial sequence of events recedes into the background in comparison. If the product placement is moreover embedded in a special narrative strand, it is additionally necessary to consider to what extent this narrative, despite the advertising intention, still fits into the editorial broadcast concept.
In the case in dispute, the interviews primarily concerned the televised football match and thus had a sufficient connection to the editorial broadcast concept of the sports broadcast. The product or the emblems of the brewery were not particularly emphasised in the camera direction and the purported quality of the product played no role in the context of the switches.
Above all, however, the viewer in the context of football broadcasts, particularly in the pre- and post-broadcast segments, is confronted with a multitude of advertising representations in any case, so that a different standard applies here than in other broadcast formats.

Conclusion

According to the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG), football, beer and advertising apparently go together. The viewer must therefore be prepared to be confronted with intensified advertising activities in the pre- and post-broadcast segments. In such circumstances, repeated display of the brewery logos and repeated mention of the beer brand does not constitute undue emphasis, at least when the product placement still has a sufficient connection to the broadcast and the quality of the product is not discussed.