Each morning news anchors on Fox's Las Vegas affiliate sit in front of very visible McDonald's iced coffee cups, part of a product-placement deal. The fast-food chain sponsors the two-hour morning news-and-lifestyle segment, but instead of commercial breaks, the advertisement happens during the news.
Since advertisement dollars already influence networks, I think the product-placement deal raises some old conflict of interest concerns.
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The Writers Guild of America is sick of having to write storylines in TV shows solely to feature a product or brand, so much so that the group is bringing the issue to the FCC. The WGA is hoping to make it so that any kind of advertisement is blatantly disclosed, and writers don't have to sneakily work products into a plotline where they maybe don't make sense.
geeksugar has questioned the product integration on Gossip Girl, noting that the show is clearly required to use Verizon products, but the gadgets used by the characters don't make sense for their characters.
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One of my favorite things about 30 Rock is the sly way the show savages corporate culture — from Jack Donaghy's title (Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming) to the hilarious Greenzo episode that poked fun at NBC's Green is Universal initiative. But I'm conflicted about the show's increasingly blatant product placement. I initially thought the gags were hilarious — remember the scene in the "Jack-Tor" episode where the writers complained about having to do product placement, all the while plugging Snapple? — but recently, they've been grating on me.
David Lynch's films may be long and inscrutable (Inland Empire was over three hours long) but his answers to obvious questions are short and sweet. (Well, not so sweet here.)
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