Is Branding Bad for Business?

I’ve been uneasy about this for awhile–the full sponsorship/co-creation of the new USA series "The Starter Wife" by Unilever’s Ponds brand. Product placement is one thing, but when an entire movie or television story line becomes a blatant marketing platform I become slightly queasy.

Media industry rag Variety agrees with me, and in an article today entitled "Is Branding Bad for Business?", asks:

I wonder where sponsor-financed movies will take us. Would
"Waitress" be the same edgy movie had Applebee’s decided to finance it?
How would the script of "Bug" been altered had it been funded by Raid? Good
movies are hard enough to make without worrying about the branding
needs of consumer companies or the script notes of marketing gurus. For
that matter, I wish most actresses would think once again about
cultivating their own distinctive "look" (remember Audrey Hepburn?)
rather than signing up for the biggest deal that’s offered them. But, come to think of it, Hepburn ended up making a killer deal with Givenchy.