Comments on: When TV Product Placement Goes Too Far

By: placement - StartTags.com

placement - StartTags.com — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:02:10 +0000

[...] couple product placements that seemed obvious- the designers and the vitamin water for instance. …Californication's Product Placement with Ashley MadisonA look at how social media sites are being promoted, via indirect product placement, in traditional [...]

By: DailySpectacle

DailySpectacle — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:26:49 +0000

I'd have to rewatch the scene to judge for myself. When I saw this scene the first time nothing stood out to me.

If so then it does go a bit far in advertising a cheating site. However from a show about sexual addiction (and yes, sometimes cheating) should we necessarily expect the highest calibre of advertising ethics?

By: Brett Borders

Brett Borders — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:03:20 +0000

If that's not product placement, I don't know what is.

Also this season, the show did product placement for “RedTube” a user-
generated porn site.

By: DailySpectacle

DailySpectacle — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:56:01 +0000

Is it possible they were being ironic? Or has this already been confirmed as product placement? I'm just saying a stripper name of 'Ashley Maddison' which happens to be a site of debauchery and sleaziness is actually pretty appropriate, is it possible this was the intention?

By: Brett Borders

Brett Borders — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:08:54 +0000

I’m sorry, Steve! The “ugg” thugs have been relentless. I hope it didn’t make for an intolerably bad user experience.

By: chasflemming

chasflemming — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:42:31 +0000

Reminds me of Lisa Catera, on Chicago Hope. Character's name came from a Cadillac Catera commercial (“Lease a Catera”).

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:58:20 +0000

Great auto-spam there, “ugg boots for sale”… grab an existing comment (mine) and paste it in with a link to your spammy POS website.

It's too bad that sh!t actually works for SEO unless it gets removed…

By: ugg boots sale

ugg boots sale — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:14:12 +0000

Personally I don't have a problem with product placement, especially if it's done in a subtle or believable way. In fact, when people wonder how advertising will survive on TV, considering all the DVR / Tivo users and downloaders etc, my answer is always 'product placement'.

Comedies can often get away with not being very subtle – “30 Rock' being a good example of having done product placement tongue in cheek often – but more serious shows have to incorporate it into the episode better.

In the Californication examples you mentioned – the Skype implementation was great imo. The stripper using 'Ashley Madison” for her name? That could have been an in-character idea as far as we know. I'd heard of that dating site a lot and for a long time (it's been mentioned on Dr Phil's show and tons of other places – usually due to its controversial raison d'etre).

So I honestly don't know if that was a joke by the character (or writers) or a genuine product placement by/for the dating site. And, since I don't know for sure – if this WAS product placement, then it was a success for me.

Good post!

By: Michael S. Copeland

Michael S. Copeland — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:41:39 +0000

Great article. Product placement is big business. Indie filmmakers actually look at it as a source of funding their films, but I personally think this may have gone too far.

Was the name just a coincidence? Doubtful.

The other thing here is this: "And something about her name faintly ‘rung a bell.’"

Rang a bell?

By: Michael S. Copeland

Michael S. Copeland — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:41:39 +0000