Watching TV has turned into a game of “spot the product placement,” one that isn’t really a game because it’s all too easy to notice when your favorite characters are suddenly touting the video camera capabilities on their cell phones. So who had the most instances of product placement in 2011?
Nielsen has come out with a list of the programs with the top 10 network offenders, and it’s no surprise that reality TV dominates. Anyone who watches reality TV has witnessed the host thanking this or that sponsor for the car driving contestants around or the workout equipment helping people lose weight. That being said, seeing the sheer number of times those shows had some sort of product placement is pretty astounding.
Here are the Top 10 primetime programs with product placement activity, in all their glory, with the number of occurrences.
1. American Idol (Fox): 577
2.The Biggest Loser (NBC): 533
3. The Celebrity Apprentice (NBC): 391
4. Dancing with the Stars (ABC): 390
5. The X Factor (FOX): 312
6. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC): 224
7. America’s Got Talent (NBC): 220
8. Friday Night Lights (NBC): 201
9. America’s Next Top Model (CW): 178
10. The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business (CBS): 161
Check out Nielsen for more of their top trends in advertising in 2011.
Nielsen’s Tops of 2011: Advertising [Nielsen]
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Remember that episode of The Office where Dwight worked at Staples?
I’ve seen product placement integrated into the script of Burn Notice for a car. It was really weird.
“Fringe” does a pretty good job with this.
Bones drives me nuts, every time they get into their cars they talk about some feature of the car or another like that’s normal conversation and not a commercial in the middle of the show
What? No product placement shoutout for Hawaii Five-0 yet?
* Chevrolet is all over it. I confess that seeing Alex O’Laughlin and Scott Caan driving the Camaro is the first time in my life the world “cool” is at the top of my mind when I think of Chevy.
* Hawaiian Airlines logo in the opening title segment.
* Microsoft’s OS platforms on all of the Five-o team’s electronic devices.
* One episode last year where a biker bar was raided. They must have gathered every Ducati motorcycle on the island for this scene.
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On an unrealated note, it’s interesting how many local news and weather studios leave the backs of their PC monitors (with the huge DELL logo) in full view of the camera.
Suits me fine. These are probably the top 10 shows I would never watch. Thanks for making my programming choices even easier.
Where’s Bones? That list is entirely “reality” TV. I don’t really care about product placement in “reality” TV, because there’s no story arc involved. In a drama like Bones or Fringe (which is another frequent offender), the product placement blasts right through the fourth wall and yanks the viewer out of the story.
P.S. Product placement is not better than commercials.
P.P.S. It’s not like there’s a *choice* anyway – where there’s one, there’s always the other.
Funny, how it seems to be the “reality shows”.
Nothing more than scripted “adventumercials”, imo.
TuxthePenguin
December 22, 2011 11:16 AM
“Honestly, I’d rather have product placement than commercials…”
I’d rather have product placement than any of these crap “reality” shows.
If you want to see how to properly (and hilariously) do product placement, check out the Community episode with the “KFC Eleven Herbs and Space Experience.” If you want to see how to totally overdo product placement, watch any episode of Chuck. It really killed the fun of the show to me when they kept trying to seel me sandwiches and minivans with electric side doors.
I watch none of these shows listed on the article lol
The show Psych frequently has car commercials right in the middle of the show.
I don’t really watch Psych anymore.
I don’t watch any of those shows, but my stepson came home from college for Christmas break and watches a show called The League on streaming Netflix. I noticed the product placement was everywhere in that show. In a time of streaming shows and DVR/PVRs with the ability to skip through commercials, this form of advertising will become the norm. Those shows don‚Äôt pay for themselves.
K…well, with the possible exception of Friday Night Lights (which I haven’t seen, but doesn’t seem to be in the same category as the rest of those shows), those are shows I like to think of as “Things that vapid people watch.” So haven’t seen any of them.
But, I am mildly annoyed every time I’m watching NCIS LA and they show somebody’s laptop…with a Windows logo on the lid where an actual OEM logo would be. Newsflash: Microsoft doesn’t make computers. And there’s not a single laptop in the world that ships with a glowing Windows logo on the lid in lieu of an OEM logo of some kind.
That list is almost all reality shows. It’s far more annoying on a scripted show when one character suddenly says to another, “Boy these Hostess Twinkies sure are great, huh?” “Oh, you betcha. I eat a box a week. I couldn’t possibly live without my delicious Hostess Twinkies.”
30 Rock does it all the time, tongue-in-cheek, but I bet they still get paid for it.
“24″ used to spend an inordinate amount of time focusing the camera on the phone and SUV logos. They often had complete episodes sponsored by Ford, “with limited commercial interruption”. Except that the commercials within the show never stopped.
What about Castle and Hawaii Five-0, with all the Windows and Windows Phone 7 stuff lol
I always wonder why some shows have old 50s or 50s vehicles in them. I wonder if there’s some sort of limitation in the law where producers don’t have to pay, say, Chevy for the use of a ’64 Chevy truck in an episode.
I also think it might be that classic vehicles simply look better on screen than modern vehicles.
Walking Dead: I did notice the Hyundai placement everywhere, but they’re also using old Jeep and GMC vehicles a lot.
Movies, too. MI:4 was a good action film. It was also a huge Apple commercial with iPads, MacBooks, and tons of iPhone 4/4s handsets.
I noticed a big surge in The Closer and Bones in the last several years.
I do not watch any of these shows! I must have good taste!