sopranos

I mentioned in a past post that not all product placement is paid for. A Chicago Trib une article called "Sopranos song: can't pay us to show products" gives an example of just that. The March 15 article discusses a recent episode of HBO's "The Sopranos", where Carmela Soprano recieves a Porche Cayenne Turbo as a gift from her husband. Carmela exclaims repeatedly over the car and talks about its attributes throughout the episode. Suprisingly, Porche did not pay a cent for this excellent advertising. Actually HBO and Porche do not take part in paid-for product placement at all. HBO claims that when you see a product in their shows it is stictly character driven and plot driven, nothing is paid for. Porche method is to just donate the car to the show and let them use it how they choose. They feel it creates a more natural placement.

I think Porche and HBO are on to something. If companies refuse to take money for placement then they are ensuring that real life brand names are only being used when it enhances the value of the show, not the bank account of the company. And it does seem that if a writer is writing a product in because they choose to, not because they have to, that the placement will be more natural. A natural placement that enhances a show would be more likely to be accepted positively by consumers. However, there is one problem- consumers are so cynical about advertising today that they just assume that every product placement is paid for. Regardless of whether or not a placement is paid for there is one rule that advertisers should keep in the top of their minds- if they placement isn't a good fit then it shouldn't be there.