Johnson & Johnson Gets Into Movie Biz With TNT

Cable World, April 29, 2002

Byline: jon lafayette

Simultaneously harking back to the days of Texaco Star Theater and emulating the more recent pedigree of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, health products giant Johnson & Johnson is putting its brand name behind made-for-cable-TV movies.

Last week J&J said it made a deal with TNT to collaborate on the development and production of original films. The movies will air under the banner Johnson & Johnson Spotlight Productions; the first will appear in July.

A source familiar with the deal said J&J has agreed to put up $20 million over three years to produce two films a year.

J&J and, in particular, its corporate VP-advertising, Andrea Alstrup, have been striving to air more family-friendly prime-time programming. Alstrup was a founder of the Family Friendly Programming Forum, which made a deal to develop programming with the WB (a sister network of TNT as part of Turner Broadcasting). In 2000, J&J helped produce and sponsored the CBS Christmas movie Flight of the Reindeer.

"The quality of the production TNT brings to its original films and their ability to promote family viewing is at the heart of this initiative," said Alstrup in a statement.

Mark Monseau, a J&J spokesman, said that films with "inspirational stories" that emphasize "the family bonds that allow us to move on in the face of adversity" will be emphasized.

The first movie, Door to Door, stars William H. Macy, Kyra Sedgwick and Helen Mirren. It's based on the story of Bill Porter, a man born with cerebral palsy who applied for a job as a door-to-door salesman with the Fuller Brush Co. in 1955. After being turned down repeatedly, he convinced the company to give him its worst route and succeeded in his work with the support of his family.

Steve Koonin, EVP and general manager of TNT, said that J&J was not looking for product placement in the movies, or even health care related themes. "We're not making the Band-Aid story," Koonin said. "Our model is the Hallmark Hall of Fame."

Indeed, there's a rich tradition of advertiser-produced programming, said Bill Carroll, a programming consultant at Katz Television Group.

"It really goes back to the Hallmark Hall of Fame," Carroll said. "What you have is that as the benchmark ongoing and what you hope is an association with high-quality production. It's not unique, but it is special."

J&J's efforts at finding appropriate programming come at a time when cable and broadcast networks are airing shows and movies with increasingly explicit language and situations in order to attract young adult viewers, Carroll said. "If you can target what is family-friendly, it is to your benefit because a large segment of the audience is looking for that."

Of course, Carroll noted, a company like J&J pays a premium for its role as an exclusive, or semiexclusive, sponsor of a specially produced program.

According to TNT's Koonin, J&J is "making an investment to get a return, and the return is an environment for their messages."

While the advertiser is "putting up a significant amount of money per film, they're getting their value back in the marketing and the public relations and the advertising space both inside the film and inside the network," Koonin said.

While J&J will keep for itself a large chunk of the ad time within the movie each time it's shown, TNT is also selling spots to other advertisers. Koonin says ad time is sold out for Door to Door's premiere run.

J&J will be mentioned in all of the marketing for the movie, which will be done on TNT, on other channels and through other parts of AOL Time Warner. TNT also will be pushing the movie on the film festival circuit.

Koonin said Door to Door's family-friendly appeal wouldn't keep it from attracting a large number of viewers.

"We expect this movie to be celebrated," he said. "It's not a Christmas film. It's not a [Tom] Selleck Western. But our ratings estimate is aggressive for it. We think this is going to be a very strong film."

The Johnson & Johnson Spotlight brand can attract viewers, rather than turn them off, Koonin said. "When I saw Hallmark Hall of Fame, it signaled to me that I was going to see something special, something that I could trust, something that would be good. Hopefully [viewers] feel that way about regular TNT movies, but I think they'll think they're seeing something a little bit special here."