The Alton Brown/Kroger connection has a pretty twisted ending: while doing research for the “yogurt” episode and shopping for stuff at Kroger, AB was actually stopped for shoplifting. In his blog, he explained that he had picked up a package of donut holes and eaten a couple, then when picking up a six-pack of Tab had emptied his handbasket and repacked it, forgetting to put the opened donut hole box back in. He was escorted to the manager’s office and even handcuffed. They eventually let him go, after he paid for the box, was photographed, and given a criminal trespass warning from the store. After that, he decided to shoot the store scenes elsewhere. The blog’s gone, but you can find copies of the post with a search.
Anyway, product placement. Worst examples that come to mind are the Xenadrine truck in Terminator 3, and the minutes-long Subway ad in the middle of an episode of NBC’s Chuck. That one was severe: the boss at the Buy More and Morgan basically stand there, staring at the sandwich, going over every single ingredient and how wonderful it all is.
The point isn’t to show that Marty McFly likes it. It’s to show that Everybody likes it. It’s to make the product seem like an integral part of life. That to not enjoy the product is unusual.
Actually, Kroger has at least a couple chains on the West Coast - FoodsCo, which is in Northern California (and possibly elsewhere) has Kroger generics, and they own Fred Meyers, although those have their own store brands.
Regarding Macs in the movies/tv. Sometimes, I see a recognizable Mac, but with the logo blocked off with a Post-it note or something. Why do they do this? Don’t want to give free advertising to Apple? You can still tell it’s a Mac for the most part.
In Arizona, they’re called Fry’s (for whatever reason, they decided to have the logo look almost exactly like Fry’s Electronics, but Wikipedia claims there’s no connection). They still sell Kroger brand food, so the veneer is pretty thin.
Yes, the “OMG you’re giving me the Nissan Rogue!” scene, bracketed by the same Nissan Rogue commercial in an episode where every commercial break began and ended with the same Nissan Rogue commercial, was a little much.
WAGging, but it seems like product placement (and most advertising) works better when the target isn’t familiar with the product niche.
Soda is a weak example; nearly everyone’s already tried Coke and/or Pepsi, so folks are already familiar and can make their own choices.
But a lot of people are still fairly new to computers and laptops specifically, so while they could educate themselves about the strengths and weaknesses of many brands and models of laptops, it’s far, far easier to think, “Well, Dell is a pretty common name. I see it everywhere. They can’t be that bad if everyone’s using them.”
I think part of it is the undue influence a product may have over a script. If you’re actually writing it into a plot, even for a weak joke, rather than just placing a Coke (as opposed to Pepsi) on the counter.
Another issue is the availablity of the product over time. Unlike a commercial ad, this product will stay in the show for years or decades if it goes into reruns.
This can make issues for local revenue ads. For instance, Jerry Seinfelds love of Snapple. Which is now owned by Dr Pepper. Seinfeld never asked or received money for the product placements it did, but suppose other shows do.
Would you like to Coke or Pepsi and taking an ad out for a Seinfeld episode where he’s offereing everyone a snapple? Advertisers usually don’t like to take out an ad to have an opposing product come up in the next ad. Or at least too soon.
Plus it can horribly date something, if the brand goes out of business. I heard Maude talking about the Bomar Brain. Who remembers Bomar?
Already we have two generations of people who can’t understand Lilly Tomlin’s Ernestine, and the phone company.
Example:
Ernestine: Hello is this Mr Nixon? Yes, well it has come to my attention you are ten days late in the payment of your phone bill. When may we expect payment. Ah…OK…I see, I understand Mr Nixon…Well…I see. Mr Nixon no need to take that tone…Ah ha…How would you like me to come over and rip every phone out of the White House. OK now we understand. I’ll have your payment by the end of the week.
Or talking to Alexei Kosygin of the Soviet Union
Ernestine: No Mr Kosygin, I’m not with the United States government. We’re much more powerful than that. We’re the PHONE company.
Maybe indirectly: Kroger owns Fred Meyer, QFC, Food 4 Less, Cala Foods, Bell Market, and a bunch of other store chains that are ubiquitous on the West Coast. Most customers probably wouldn’t know that, but the “Kroger” labelled semi-generics are carried in them, so there’d be at least some brand recognition.
People forget that, at least for TV shows, viewers are not the customers. Viewers of (US) commercial TV pay little or nothing for toward the development of the shows. Advertisers are the customers, and without them there would be no broadcast TV except PBS unless we went to a BBC-like television tax to pay for them. But advertisers are, in turn faced with the dilemma that viewers (who buy their products, thus giving them the money to advertise with) don’t like commercials. Viewers skip commercials, either with high-tech DVRs or the low-tech “leave the room and make a sandwich” methods. Hence, product placement.
The same “viewers are not the customers” is why shows get cancelled based on ratings, not critical success or viewer popularity (except inasmuch as it gets reflected in said ratings). It’s not the television company’s direct goal to entertain viewers. The goal is to attract advertiser revenue–everything else is secondary.
I’ve no idea if iCarly does this but there’s the tried-and-true “glowing pear” on a laptop to make it an Apple-but-not-an-Apple. I’ve seen it on TV and in comics (thankfully never noticed it in a film).
Look people, just make it a laptop. I don’t need a glowing fruit image to comprehend that they’re not typing on a TV dinner tray.