fuzzbox

Since nobody's making weekly posts about it any more, is everyone as annoyed by the product placement in this show as I am?

2 weeks ago it was the crazy huge Chili's logo in the date scene, and this week, the ridiculously out of place scenes from "Austrailia". It's getting to be so obvious that these are paid for that it's getting insulting.

Is any show as bad as SW Lately?

-jason

Giantrobo

Didn't they say that there would be more of this in shows since the DVR folks skip ads?

EDIT: Yes and No....but mostly yes for TV shows.

an article here

fuzzbox

oh, not denying there'll be more of it- I've been skipping commercials via DVR for years. but these are BAD. At least the Chili's one made a bit of sense in the context of the scene, though it still felt shoehorned in, but the one from this week made ZERO sense at all in the context of the show, and it was so obvious as to almost be yelling "I'm a product placement!"

-jason

BJacks

How did they include "Australia" in the show? Just curious. Did they go to the movies or something and they cut to scenes from the film?

Mr. Salty

Well, there was the Kay's jewelry subplot in "My Name Is Earl," and they've managed to work a closeup of a Dodge Ram truck logo into virtually every recent episode of "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles." It is something we're going to see more and more of.

Rypro 525

during one of the later episodes of Alias one of the charcters (i think it was Jack) actually talked about the Ford Focus and its features) and i think before a car chase Sydney said outloud 'look the ford Focus' and then a closeup of the ford logo as it screeches out of the parking lot

Goat3001

Season 1 of Heroes had Hiro mentioning the Nissan Versa a lot. That was kind of annoying. I guess its the price we pay for DVR'ing everything we watch. Hopefully if/when we change to an all on-demand format they'll be able to do away with all the crappy product placements.

Deftones

yeah, this is how they are going to make money now that people don't watch commercials. it is annoying, but as long as i get to keep skipping the commercials between the show, i won't mind all that much.

mdc3000

Me and my sister still quote this as one of the worst offenders ever and it was Vaughn as they were running to a truck "Syd, quick, F-150!"

Drexl

The first thing that came to mind was Burger King on Arrested Development.

Mr. Salty

One instance of product placement that I liked was during, I think, the first season of "30 Rock." They get a Pizza Hut pizza delivered and Liz holds it with the box lid open to show the logo. She says something about Pizza Hut, then looks right at the camera and says "Can we have our money now?" At least they were honest about whoring themselves out.

Shazam

Soon, everything on your favourite show will be blurred out, except for the logos.

emachine12

I Love Lucy (1951) - Sponsored by Philip Morris, the original opening to the show had Lucy and Ricky climbing down from a pack of cigarettes. The show originally closed with the couple having a goodnight smoke.

Beverly Hillbillies (1962) - The closing credits state that all vehicles were provided by Ford Motor Company.

Knight Rider (1982) - Kitt is a Pontiac Trans Am.

Knight Rider 2000 (1991) - Kitt is supposed to be a Pontiac Banshee IV but was a modified Dodge Stealth.

And lest we forget the numorous television specials that are "Presented by..." or "Presented commercial free by..."

Product placement and sponsorship has been in television for years. Its like product placement for movies. You'd rather they go the low budget route and use black tape to cover up the original product name? That's more annoying since you know the product already.

By the way...the holiday favorite Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer was originally sponsored by General Electric and I remember an announcer repeating that during the broadcasts in the 1980s.

ENDContra

Product placement isnt going anywhere...and honestly, Id rather have real products mentioned than using fake products or blurring stuff out. I always thought it was silly on Cheers when someone would come in and say "Id like a beer please" They apparently serve only one beer at Cheers

That being said, the aforementioned Alias ones were awful...no one talks like that. They do need to be based in some kind of reality though...ie, in Terminator, this group of people that dont have real jobs and are trying to stay "off the grid" as much as possible are driving around in a $35000 truck? Cmon now...I guess they could have stole it, sure, but when you are trying to lay low, you try to avoid stealing trucks if you can help it I think.

dgmayor

On The West Wing they ate a lot of Panda Express and the drink of choice was either a Schweppes Bitter Lemon or Dewars on the rocks. Obviously there was a lot more since they talked about a ton of different things, but those two always stuck out to me.


I really don't mind it to be honest...I agree with ENDContra, I'd rather see real products than fake ones, although they better not take away Morley Cigarettes!

Rypro 525

24 recently has been pretty blatent with product placement (cisco, nextell, ford)

DWilson

"The Closer" has always been pretty blatant. Kyra Sedgewick's character is always snacking on something, and the label is always shown to the camera (for a while it was Keebler's, -now its SoyJoy). Her phone also has the distinctive ring-tone of one of the major carriers.

The car stuff from past years seems fairly innocuous compared to the stuff done now.

I've always wondered about a particular "30 Rock" episode, -there was the ep where Liz's ex saves a kid in the subway and they kept using the clunky term "Subway Hero!", and I wondered if that was intended as a plug for the sandwich chain...

JuryDuty

You nailed it.

collven

I really don't see what the big deal is. Let's face it, it's either that or, next thing you know, 60 minute shows will only have 30 minutes of programming 30 minute shows will have something like 12 minutes of programming. Networks are making less and less on commercials and shows are getting more expensive to produce. They have to make their money somehow.

We have brought a lot of this on ourselves by DVRing through commercials. So, it's either start watching the commercials again or live with product placement. Frankly, I'd rather live with product placement.

Mattrk

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Eureka and its not-even-trying product placement for Degree deodorant. Hell, in one episode an "advanced version" of the stuff saved the day. It was a very irritating and clumsy way to promote a product and almost ruined a pretty good year.

I wish more of the placement would be handled in the same way that 30 Rock did with Pizza Hut - "okay, here's your moment in our sun, make sure we get the check."

jonw9

There were several episode of the Office, where I think Dwight worked at one of the bigbox office supply stores. I don't remember which one, so the "ad" must not have worked with me.

Achtung

May have been a different episode, but I think they did that with Verizon Wireless as well as Snapple. And then in another episode they made fun of Jack's attempts to get them to shill GE products on the show.

I remember some really pathic produce placements from even before the "DVR era". An early episode of CSI had some kid telling the agents something like "I was chilling in m PT Cruiser with the heated seats". And an episode of Friends with Joey using half of the intro to talk to himself about Frosted Flakes ("they're grrreat!").

Achtung

It was Staples.[/brainwashed]

One thing that has bugged me on occasion about The Office is the product placement. Chili's, HP, Staples, Apple... those are the ones that come to mind right now.

Zen Peckinpah

"I’m gonna go get a new soda. Hey, you know that you can get a refill on any drink you want here, and it’s free?"
"It's a wonderful restaurant!"
"It SURE IS!"

The frequent cutting to the exterior is priceless. One of my favorite episodes.

Also the first season of Weeds with the plane that drops a shitload of Coke bottles in Celia's house.

fuzzbox

Basically, yeah.

It was mentioned in a conversation earlier in the show, then later you saw a still of the front of a movie theater with the title on the marquee, then cut to a scene lasting about 2-3 minutes where you only see the characters in silhouette on the sides of the screen, while you see scenes from the movie in sharp focus in the center of the screen.

I wouldn't mind AS MUCH if it was subtle product placement, but the thing was how "in your face" this one was...

-jason