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Hope you didn't get offended by Transformers then..... That is huge product placement. ;)
 
Yes, House M.D. is full of Apple products ... Do you think they just happened to be there?

Of course not, every show recoups shooting costs at least a little with advertisments, even if they don't make it as obvious like colbert and doritos.

Interestingly, House M.D. used to have dells all over the place in the first season, you know, before they had money ;)
 
I don't get it. UK tv never rebroadcasts American shows or movies? If they do, I guess they're breaking the law? 'Cause product placement is everywhere...

Do they blur the backgrounds during the news, too?:confused:
 
So under this apparent law, no TV show could ever use any branded product?
Nope, you can't use that desk from IKEA.
Nope, you can't use that computer.
Nope, you can't use that car.
You have to make it all yourself from scratch.
:confused::confused::confused:

Why are you calling it an "apparent law" when a reference has already been cited...

And TV shows get around it by covering up logos.

As stated, an IKEA desk doesn't have a big IKEA logo over it...
A computer logo will be covered over, Scrubs did this, covering the apple logo of one of the laptops used with a Sacred Heart Hospital logo
Cars badges will either be unreadable, or simply removed, although in some cases, certain cars are big parts of the story, for example "Life on Mars" had an iconic 1974 Ford Cortina, and that was a part of the show.

What the law basically means is product placement, subliminal advertising. Watching american TV it's literally everywhere, it's a wonder how you guys can get into a good narrative sometimes given the amount of endorsements shoved down your throat :p

BTW, if someone can find me a film that has a Sony laptop that ISN'T in a low angle shot, I will take my hat off to you. Their marketing department seems to love low angle shots of their products...
 
The difference between American (style) TV and the rest of the world is that the only reason American style TV exists is to sell advertizing. The content is merely there to get you watch the advertizing. The rest of the world uses the content to actually entertain and educate. The advertizing, if there is any, is to help pay for the content.

I use the term American "style" because while the Americans invented and perfected ad supported TV, they aren't the only ones using it. Canadian TV gets so much content from the US, I must place Canada in the American style catagory.... though thankfully we have CBC as well. The Americans have their public TV (I forget the name just now) of course. But it is the exception. I'm sure there must be at least a couple of places that follow the American model.

What is sad, is that even American news now seems to only exist to sell advertizing.

All of the above is obviously just my opinion.
 
Fancy citing a source for that?

I wasn't aware America invented TV advertising...

"The world's first television advertisement was broadcast July 1, 1941. The watchmaker Bulova paid $4 for a placement on New York station WNBT before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The 10-second spot displayed a picture of a clock superimposed on a map of the United States, accompanied by the voice-over "America runs on Bulova time." Click here for the link on Wikipedia

That takes care of the invention. The perfection is of course a matter for debate. But I have watched TV on 3 continents (Europe, North America, Asia) and so far I will give US TV the edge in perfecting TV ads. :)
 
Sorry but wikipedia is not a reputable source tbh... One day you'll find that out :p

But I'm not going to debate it, to be honest though, TV advertising wasn't "invented" it just occurred first in America, it's not like a team of scientists sat down with a TV, and a newspaper advert, trying to fuse the 2 together for days...

Advertisements happened in cinema theatres too before TV you know :p
 
Many of the US production companies for US cable networks have major product endorsement deals. On the USA, TNT and other networks, it's hard not to miss the product sitting in a show's scene (for instance, Sonic Drive In cups and food in the "Bill Engval Show") in close proximity to a commercial by the same company. It's an American tradition since radio shows and "soap" operas.
 
Many of the US production companies for US cable networks have major product endorsement deals. On the USA, TNT and other networks, it's hard not to miss the product sitting in a show's scene (for instance, Sonic Drive In cups and food in the "Bill Engval Show") in close proximity to a commercial by the same company. It's an American tradition since radio shows and "soap" operas.

MSNBC has managed to take product placement to new heights (rather, depths) with the Morning Joe collaboration with Starbucks. In past, it's been fairly universal to keep such partnerships out of arm's reach with anything considered "news," but this really crossed that line.
 
Sorry but wikipedia is not a reputable source tbh... One day you'll find that out :p

But I'm not going to debate it, to be honest though, TV advertising wasn't "invented" it just occurred first in America, it's not like a team of scientists sat down with a TV, and a newspaper advert, trying to fuse the 2 together for days...

Advertisements happened in cinema theatres too before TV you know :p

Oh, you wanted an accurate citation. I'll dig a little deeper and get back. I think you are splitting hairs a bit, making the distinction between "invention" and "occurred" ... but whatever. Until I can prove it with a non-wikipedia source, I will merely state that I think the idea of putting an ad on TV happened in the US first. I noticed you didn't address the "perfection" bit. :)
 
MSNBC has managed to take product placement to new heights (rather, depths) with the Morning Joe collaboration with Starbucks. In past, it's been fairly universal to keep such partnerships out of arm's reach with anything considered "news," but this really crossed that line.

To be fair, nothing Scarborough has ever been NEAR has resembled news. :rolleyes:

But it's the slippery slope from there to having the Starbucks cup on the NBC Nightly News' anchor's desk during the broadcast.
 
How long can we continue this until the original poster comes back if ever, because argueing to a blank wall for the moment isn't doing anything. :p
 
Well the more vulnerable people watching the show (children, elderly or people who are not able to make a clear judgement on what is happening on screen) may believe that the product is being endorsed by the character or company.



OH NO! Mr. Monk endorses SLEEP INN! Save our children!

I doubt that (children especially) viewers will see the Sleep Inn sign and give more than a rat's ass about it.
 
This whole scene was pretty ridiculous. Not only was Sleep Inn highly visible, but about three different cleaning product logos were protruding from Monk's shopping bag, and then when he, Natalie, and the hotel attendant are looking at the UFO, the attendant pulls out a Flip video camera, logo clear and bright, to record it.

If you believe any of this is coincidental, you are very naive.
 
I remember reading about this new trend many years ago. They predicted that soon there will be no more "commercials." It will all be integration of product and show through product placement and other means. Reality shows are the most obvious.
 
Oh, you wanted an accurate citation. I'll dig a little deeper and get back. I think you are splitting hairs a bit, making the distinction between "invention" and "occurred" ... but whatever. Until I can prove it with a non-wikipedia source, I will merely state that I think the idea of putting an ad on TV happened in the US first. I noticed you didn't address the "perfection" bit. :)

I literally said right under that, "I'm not going to debate it", I'm sure the first ad really did happen in America, I wasn't disagreeing, I just don't like using wikipedia as a source, hell, you could've entered that info for all I know :p (Although I'm sure you didn't really...)

Oh yeah, and I didn't comment on the perfection bit because generally I don't think America has it perfected, America seems to have a overkill approach to advertising, thinking that if you blitz an audience enough, they'll just because mindless zombies and buy whatever you tell them to, it seems very patronising. But that's my opinion.
 
Watch The Apprentice from the US and then from the UK. Every US episode is a not-very well disguised advert for a specific company. With the UK one they company is often very hard to work out...
 
Does anyone else have the sudden urge to burn down a Holiday Inn after seeing this episode? The Sleep Inn lust for fire must be satiated. All hail the Sleep Inn.

Woah, wait, where am I?
 
We're numb to it. Or if we bother to notice it at all, we laugh at it.

Apple isn't above it, either, assuming Alec Baldwin flashing an iPhone wasn't gratuitous...

Apple is one of the worst offenders, the ridiculous scene in Drag me to hell where Justin Long has two Macs comes to mind as particularly blatant.

Sorry but wikipedia is not a reputable source tbh... One day you'll find that out :p

Wikipedia may not always be right, but it is usually reasonable...
 
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