From bugsi@mac.com Sat May 22 10:17:52 2004
Subject:Re: Taping over Logos and other stupid stuff

ed fliege wrote:

>> Or you could do what Paul Schaffer (Letterman show) does and cover all the
>> labels on the keyboards he uses. . . .
> I've always thought this was a strange practice. I've heard the mantra
> "They (keyboard manufacturers) aren't paying me to advertise for them, so
> why should I do it for free?" . . .
> . . . I've never seen a guitar player put tape over the 'Fender' or 'Gibson'
> on the headstock just because Fender didn't give them the guitar for free. .
> .
> Heck, most gearheads can make out a Triton from 50 yards away just by the
> color and shape, and nobody besides a gearhead would care one way or the
> other. If the reason Schaffer does it is to keep from getting a sponsor
> pissed, I think that's a stupid game to play. . . .

I'm almost 100% certain that this practice has nothing at all to do with an
individual performer's desire to hide their choice of gear or on the flip
side to laud their preference for gear, but everything to do with the
television networks, and that it is indeed about sponsors and advertisers,
and with the amount of money a television commercial costs, the networks
don't consider it a game. I see it all the time, for example with guest
artists on Saturday Night Live, I recently saw an amplifier manufacturer's
logo with a distinctive shape neatly covered in matching-shaped gaffer's
tape. The goal was obviously to just temporarily black it out rather than
to permanently obscure the product's identity, in which case the logo could
have simply been removed if that had been the objective.

You have to figure a brand logo staring the audience in the face for a 4 or
5 minute performance makes for some pretty good television advertising if
you can get it! It isn't limited to just music gear either, I remember
during the televised O.J. Simpson trial, Judge Ito's computer monitor had a
giant "SONY" logo staring everyone in the face almost constantly. Now I see
the rear logo of computer monitors covered up too.

I've seen keyboard logos covered in gaffer's tape at other popular
advertising-laden live-venues as well, such as Disney Land. I think there
is also some evidence that it is an advertising-sponsor practice in that you
don't see it in televised performances with less planning, like when a
newscast catches a snippet of a performance at an outdoor holiday
celebration, and things like that.

FWIW,
-Mark B.