Move over Censor Lady, you have company! More than one show on HGTV has somebody operating a button or something to 'blurr out' stuff. I vote we name him. In the spirit of Grey''s Anatomy, I vote for the name [B]McBlurry[/B].
I first noticed the work of McBlurry while watching episodes of Real Renos more than a year ago. At that time, I thought it was possibly the work of The Censor Lady, as maybe the blurrs which were over t-shirt fronts were to hide something possibly offensive. Then I heard maybe it was to block names like Nike or some other logo that could be considered free advertising, or found to be unsuitable for television for some reason. It was then clear this blurring around was more than the work of The Censor Lady.
In recent weeks I am sure I saw 2 different shows on HGTV showing the work of McBlurry over art on the walls of homes. The last show was one where help is given to stage a home that is not selling as-is, and it is decluttered/painted and furntture is edited/downsized. (The unsellables?) Some may suggest that the blurr is over family pictures, but I saw the same wall in different shots, one with the blurr and one without, and it was definitely art. So is it a copyright issue?
I really haven't noticed a lot of this blurry stuff on other networks. Will it take off and be in all our news broadcasts, for example, to carefully erase the team name on a sports jersey or a Nike logo on the hat of a witness being interviewed in a story? I wonder. How far do you think it will go?
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The blurs are often because something has a copyright. In other words the owner of the piece, t-shirt, or whatever does not own the copyright so they aren't authorized to use it in any manner in another medium. In this case that would be on TV. I assume someone somewhere went after a show for using their work without paying so they are just not taking any chances any more.
considering sponsorship and product promo's are going to be the only way TV networks can recoup the lost revenues from declining ad sales, I think we will see blurring more and more, along side more prominant product placement. PVR's and cable tv are cutting into the once lucrative advertsing TV networks had. I believe the advertising revenues have decclined over 50% in the last few years.
If there is a competing brand on the show - it will be blurred.