I've come to expect product placement in my reality shows. Idol judges drink coke products and the contestants shill in the commercials they perform in. On The Apprentice every episode is one long advertisement (those companies certainly aren't getting any work product out of the actual tasks!). And over on Bravo Project Runway and now Top Chef have taken this to new levels. I was watching Top Chef the other night and not only did they drive around in glossy SUVs, but when they unpacked them the hatch came down and the camera lingered lovingly on the vehicle name and logo. Cheesy, yes. But sort of to be expected in reality shows.
What's been more then a little creepy lately is the product placements happening in dramas (and comedies too I suppose). I've gotten hooked on the new HBO series Big Love (more on that in my next post), but it's been more then a little distracting to have products not only shown but mentioned quite prominently. In last Sunday's episode the products named and shown included the Ipod, an SUV, several brands of shoes, and a movie store. How's that for getting a bang for your buck?
This is HBO we're talking about. The channel I, and every other subscriber out there, pay an arm and a leg to watch. Do they really need to be making money shilling products in their highly regarded dramas? It's not even that I'm morally opposed to the idea - I'm not sure what I am. It's that it lessens the quality of the show. If I'm jerked out of the story every time a character stops to advertise something, there goes the dramatic impact and if they do it often enough, there goes me.
If HBO is that hard up for cash, maybe they should just put some commercials on in that dead space between movies.
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