What happened to the days of zooming in on the back of a car before a chase or conveniently placing a bottle of beer so that the label faces the camera? Why is it that in the past couple weeks, I've had to endure (mostly) horribly-placed 30-second long conversations about KFC? On The Good Guys, in order to distract a fellow agent that they were stealing information from, a main character distracts the said agent by talking him about the Doublicious sandwich he was holding and, of course, making sure to describe the "delicious, sweet sauce that formed a delicious combination" with the rest of the sandwich. And then on Running Wilde, the main character visits the office he's had a job at for several years without ever going to. An employee asks him if he wants to have lunch, KFC, with them but he's never heard of KFC, which opens the door to hearing half a minute of comments about how delicious KFC is.
Why can't people figure out how to successfully integrate products into TV shows with less subtlety than those horribly-written medicine commercials:
(Four women sit around a table playing cards)
Woman #1: Oh, I'm so happy! My granddaughter is getting married this saturday.
(Lots of squealing)
Woman #2: Oh, you must be so excited!
Woman #4: Who's the lucky man?
Women #3: I have arthritis. You guys know any good medications?
The only bright spot I've seen recently in the creativity of the product integration business was last week's episode of Community, "Basic Rocket Science", in which the main characters boarded a space shuttle simulator from the 80s that was sponsored by KFC. While the writers claimed they actually asked KFC to use their brand (I don't buy it), the episode seemed very careful not to insult KFC. However, they kept it subtle. They made jokes out it that didn't insult our intelligence or the brand they were selling. This is a good example of how it should be done, even if there was a brief moment where Chang mentioned how delicious the Doubleicious sandwich is. This was, of course, immediately after a line that included the phrase "like they think we're doing product integration with KFC", so I'll let it slide. And, admittedly, the Doublicious sandwich is delicious, with its amazing sauces and seasonings and whatnot...
I think I'll go get one for dinner, but first I have to cash my check.
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