Product Placement in TV Shows

In Blogging, Branding by Brian Town

Have you ever noticed that a lot of TV shows will cover up the brand names on things or turn them around in a shot so those names aren’t visible? Or just use things that are very obviously just props in place of those brand name products? On the other hand, a lot of shows will keep those brands in their episodes: product placement. Product placement is supposed to put those brands in the scene in a subtle way, that isn’t so in-your-face as traditional ads. But how often do you notice them? Which ones have you actually found subtle, and which are shamelessly placed with no attempt at any sense of
subtlety?

Here are some of the most well-known cases of product placement in television (just to name a few!):

The Big Bang Theory uses a lot of product placement, for example:

Nielsen named this as one of the top ten most memorable product placements of 2011!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkdXJroQFms
While this one makes fun of the Apple Geniuses, it’s pretty funny!

Modern Family has also been known to integrate big names into the show, like when Phil expresses his love for his iPad:

Or when Claire and Haley go to Target:

Modern+Family+Target+Claire+Haley
(Image)

This one from Burn Notice just screams Hyundai commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng88ZhtRjL8

Finally, we had those famous Coca-Cola cups on American Idol:

Obviously some of these are much more forced than other examples of product placement, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide which you found subtle and which you found to be way too obvious!

~ Alli

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