# Most awkward product placement **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** commercials-ads\ **Created:** [October 10, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020 "2022-10-10T16:47:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2022, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/41 "2022-10-10T22:09:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > > [@Author\_Balk](#): > > > > My favorite was in Angie Tribeca. They put a Little Caesar’s ad in the middle of the show. > > OK, that was even worse than the Hawaii 5-0 Subway ad that @DWMarch beat me to. I didn’t like the first episode of Angie Tribeca so I stopped watching but it was a comedy in the style of Police Squad! So I assume they had fun with the Little Caesar’s ad. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2022, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/42 "2022-10-10T22:14:11Z")
This is doubtless the strangest product placement I’ve ever seen. It’s a 1953 promotional film for Eastern Air Lines “hosted” by radio/TV superstar Arthur Godfrey. But midway into the promotion for Eastern, Godfrey decides to do a little extra promotion for one of his favorite sponsors. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/O1z6BDBakYQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Eastern Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation Promo Film - 1953") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1z6BDBakYQ) ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2022, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/43 "2022-10-10T22:17:44Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I didn’t like the first episode of Angie Tribeca so I stopped watching but it was a comedy in the style of Police Squad! So I assume they had fun with the Little Caesar’s ad. Similar is the 30 Rock Snapple scene: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/b9hepxidZyo/maxresdefault.jpg "30 Rock Snapple Product Placement") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9hepxidZyo) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2022, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/44 "2022-10-10T22:21:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > My favorite, though, was from Iron Man… He also uttered a phrase that got us started eating a whole new ethnicity of food. At the end of The Avengers, Iron Man’s been thrown back into our universe (by an atomic bomb, which as you know is the preferred way to pull that off). After he’s lying, barely breathing, on the streets of a devastated Manhattan, he mumbles… > Ironman: > What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me. > > Captain America: > We won. > > Ironman: > All right, yay. Hurray. Good job, guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is, but I want to try it. Then at the last minute, they added a post-credits scene with the Avengers so tired they can barely move, but they’re eating shawarma at a little hole-in-the-wall place in NYC. After the movie, my wife said “I don’t know what it is, but I want to try it.” And, though the only place that has it in town is inside a gas station, we loaded up… and now it’s one of our favorite take-out meals. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2022, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/45 "2022-10-10T22:21:54Z")
True, but it was the most egregious example from it. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/46 "2022-10-11T00:36:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > My favorite, though, was from Iron Man, Yet more from Iron Man 2 and 3. Oracle seems to have put money in. In Iron Man 2 Tony Stark introduces Larry Ellison as “the Oracle of Silicon Valley.” I can swear Downey was grimacing. In 3 there was an Oracle symbol on the barn Stark was hiding out in, and someone mentions the Oracle cloud. The upside was that I was working for Oracle at the time and the rented a multiplex so that all employees could go see it. With a free soda, popcorn and 3D glasses, and on work time. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/47 "2022-10-11T01:00:45Z")
There was an old TV series called the FBI in the '70s with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. It was sponsored by Ford. Not only were all the cars driven by the cast Fords, every car parked along the street or city roads were also Fords. Once you caught on to that is was impossible to not see. An alternate universe where there were only Fords. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/48 "2022-10-11T01:07:00Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > There was an old TV series called the FBI in the '70s with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. It was sponsored by Ford. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > Back in the 60s, Ford insisted on product placement on _The FBI._ The heroes always drove Fords and the villains never did. Ford even took the slogan “Ford is a Better Idea” from the show. That product placement really worked for it to be done twice in this thread… ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/49 "2022-10-11T01:13:41Z")
The original “DeGrassi High” series had Dipps granola bars displayed, or their advertising, at pretty much every opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/50 "2022-10-11T01:37:28Z")
I think what bothered me so much about the awkwardness of it on The Patient is not only how clumsy and cringy it was, but the nature of the show. I expect the cars and the soft drinks, and usually they don’t call _too_ much attention to themselves unless the show is trying to justify the sell out by calling attention to it and mocking themselves. But a clumsy bit, with a forced dialogue brand name call out, in a show that is otherwise trying to be a serious psychodrama (with horror elements), it really stands out. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/51 "2022-10-11T01:39:31Z")
Well, that was period practice. On _The Jack Benny Program,_ the action would stop dead for a minute every week while the characters expounded on the virtues of Jell-O or some other sponsor. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/52 "2022-10-11T01:47:32Z")
The neon-sign sequence in _Love Happy_ is notorious, though it traditionally given a pass because 1, they needed the money to finish the film, and, 2, it’s the most brilliant thing in the whole picture. And then there were the instances of Zima and a Kawasaki Ninja on _Babylon 5_. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/53 "2022-10-11T02:00:34Z")
The soap Days of Our Lives used to do weird product placements all the time. First up, Wanchai Ferry Chinese food. The older lady owns a pub/restaurant, but she’s serving brand name food. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JPJpgjfFJpc/hqdefault.jpg "Days of Our Lives - Wanchai Ferry (Chinese food) product placement") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPJpgjfFJpc) Second, Cheerios [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/gCh4gnIcJEM/hqdefault.jpg "Brilliantly subtle product placement") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCh4gnIcJEM) Third, Midol. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/E2CuhtuwV2o/hqdefault.jpg "Midol Product Placement in Days of Our Lives") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2CuhtuwV2o) Finally, Chex Mix [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2uObLcznfjY/hqdefault.jpg "Days of Our Lives - Chex Mix product placement") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uObLcznfjY) ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/54 "2022-10-11T02:16:20Z")
The **Julia Roberts** vehicle _Runaway Bride_ had the clunkiest, most blatant and I suspect counterproductive placement I’ve even seen. She escapes from one of her nuptials in a Fedex van; someone says “where is she going?” To Hector Elizondo’s eternal shame he drops the clunker: “I don’t know, but she’ll get there by 10:30 tomorrow” or whatever Fedex’s current campaign byline was. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/55 "2022-10-11T02:24:29Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > She escapes from one of her nuptials in a Fedex van; someone says “where is she going?” To Hector Elizondo’s eternal shame he drops the clunker: “I don’t know, but she’ll get there by 10:30 tomorrow” or whatever Fedex’s current campaign byline was. I don’t think I even saw that as product placement at the time. I feel like it was a very 90’s thing to have someone sarcastically say a slogan. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/56 "2022-10-11T03:54:23Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > **Hawaii 5-0** had a partnership with Microsoft that obligated characters to use Windows Phones (which were actually decent and it’s a shame they never caught on) and also to tell each other to “Bing it” unironically. Leverage must have had the same deal. ‘Bing it’ was very awkward. **Burn Notice** clearly had a deal with Hyundai. Lots of artistic shots of the car emblem, especially during the car chases. Also, the beer bottles normally had the same fake tv labels except for the occasional weeks that Bud would sponsor them. It stood out because it was rare. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/57 "2022-10-11T05:33:32Z")
Well, there was that time on _I Love Lucy_ where Lucy dressed up as Phillip Morris and climbed inside the TV. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/T1HkMGWtNgY/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AHuBIAC0AOKAgwIABABGGUgZShlMA8=&rs=AOn4CLBFeGQa88YSrCkDjP6YxgQDBa0T6A "I Love Lucy | Lucy has angled her way onto Ricky's special as the show's pitch girl") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1HkMGWtNgY) ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/58 "2022-10-11T06:29:48Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Back in the 60s, Ford insisted on product placement on _The FBI._ The heroes always drove Fords and the villains never did. Ford even took the slogan “Ford is a Better Idea” from the show. The TV show, “Family” used Fords also. In one episode the mom had been having dreams about an “evil” car. I can’t recall the exact details but it was small and bright red, I think. The family car had to go in for service and dad brought home the loaner. Mom goes to the driveway to take the loaner to the store and “OH No - it’s the evil car!” It was was a bright red Chevrolet Vega. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/59 "2022-10-11T06:39:44Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Godfrey decides to do a little extra promotion for one of his favorite sponsors. Come for the promotion, stay for the Connie. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020/60 "2022-10-11T06:47:33Z")
sad thing is she was right … vegas’ sucked in every possible way [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-awkward-product-placement/973020.md?page=4)