20 Examples of Blatant Product Placements In Film and TV
Carly Tennes
Published
04/04/2024
in
facepalm
While we may do our best to skip through ads every time we turn on the TV, some of our favorite shows make it quite difficult to avoid the grasping clutch of our capitalist overlords. Love it or hate it — the vast majority of us in the latter — product placement is here to stay.
From entire episodes dedicated to the powers of Apple’s FaceTime feature to a superhero gleaning stretchy powers by eating a stick of Stride gum, here are 17 of the worst product placements in television history.
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1. Under The Dome
“Let me add Under The Dome to the list. It's a spectacular car crash of a show in general in a "so bad it's good" way. Here's the scene. It's in French, but that really doesn't matter. The lady is seriously injured, and they drag her into the brand new Prius® to save her. Along the way they show off the wonderful maneuverability of their Prius® by avoiding a fallen tree. And then, while one guy clearly has trouble just getting the injured woman out of the car, the other guy spends the time plugging in the car to let it charge instead of helping with carrying the injured character. Oh, also, did I mention that the show plays in a trapped city that essentially has no power, but they still plug in their car to let it charge?” —__Hello_my_name_is__ -
2. Parks and Recreation
“There was a whole season of Parks and Rec where everyone was using Microsoft products (Surface, Lumia, etc.). It was never directly referenced to, but I thought it stuck out because clearly Tom and Donna would have been iPhone users.” —fezfrascati -
3. 30 Rock
“One of my favorites was on 30 Rock talking about Verizon and Liz turns to the camera and says ‘can we have our money now?’” —EmiliaDreper -
4. Smallville
“Smallville was crazy with it. WB shows always promote bands that are under the Warner Bros Records label, but in one episode they had a guy get superpowers because One Republic held a concert at the Stride Gum factory. And some kryptonite laced Stride Gum gave him stretchy powers” —Roook36 -
5. The Walking Dead
“The Walking Dead was rocking the cleanest [Hyundai] in all of Georgia for the first 3 seasons.” —Battlescarred98 -
6. Arrested Development
“Arrested Development and Burger King. ‘IT'S A WONDERFUL RESTAURANT!’” —BrogalDorn -
7. This Is Us
“In ‘This Is Us’, Season 5 Episode 8, There is a tiny little C-plot about a man named Nasir who pioneers and created data compression for images and video across computers. Cool story, not a whole about it other than how they met, what he does, and a blurb at the end. But this whole episode felt to me was entirely an ad for FaceTime. Everyone on the show has an Apple product already, from what I remember no one uses anything else. Using these [was] hugely popular in 2020/21 to connect to others.” —u/Will0w536 -
8. House of Cards
“In House of Cards, Season 3, Chapter 31, there is a moment where some guy is trying to show a pair of women who work in foreign affairs where and what the Jordan Valley looks like. Considering the Jordan Valley/Israel is a huge area of concern for a US Foreign affairs agent to look like a moron. The guy tries to show it on a tablet and they look so puzzled and he then ‘flicks’ the image from a Galaxy Tab to a Samsung TV. Focusing on the action and the devices.” —u/Will0w536 -
9. The Rookie
“In ‘The Rookie’ Season 2 Episode 8, John Nolan is loading up his Toyota Tundra with building supplies. This part of the show feels like a commercial. The loading of the truck to see how much it can hold, closing the hatch with Tundra the focus in frame, the sweep along the side, entering the vehicle, the ignition switching on, the lighting on the dash and the tow haul.” —u/Will0w536 -
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11. Designated Survivor
“The Ford commercial in the middle of a Designated Survivor episode. — peanutbutterpup -
12. Breaking Bad
“Does nobody remember when Breaking Bad became a Chrysler/Dodge commercial for a few minutes?” —jackw800800 -
13. The Sopranos
“The Sopranos has a classic one. When Tony gifts AJ a new car, he says, "It's a part of Nissans Triple Safety Technology.” —LarryLegend1836 -
14. Friends
“Can’t believe no one has mentioned the Pottery Barn episode of Friends. Can’t get more obvious. However, they had a great story around it.” —juliusseizure -
15. Loki
“In Loki season 2 they time travel back to the 80s. There's a few scenes inside an old McDonalds. Owen Wilson at some point goes there and delights in getting to have an apple pie and enjoy a meal.” —thrillhoMcFly · -
16. The Bachelor
“KFC on The Bachelor ... it was so blatant and silly I couldn’t look away and then I really wanted some fried chicken” —facebook57 -
17. Survivor
“There was that one episode of Survivor where the tribe that won the reward challenge got the "prize" of an advanced screening of the Adam Sandler movie Jack & Jill. The contestants trying to pretend like they were enjoying it were pretty hilarious.” —sharrrper -
18. Riverdale
“Covergirl makeup on Riverdale was so bad it was iconic again” —keine_fragen -
19. Hawaii Five-0
“Windows Live Messenger sponsored on Hawaii Five-O. It was so bad I had to stop the episode cut the clip and post it on YouTube right away.” —LucAltaiR -
20. Stranger Things
“There have been many on Stranger Things. Hopper getting out of a car holding a bag from Burger King with the company logo towards the camera so the audience could see it. The scenes with a can of Coke and Lucas talking about the new flavor.” —Dianagorgon -
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22. Modern Family
“Modern Family has 2 entire episodes that are dedicated Apple ads. One is all about how Phil's birthday is the same day as the iPad launch and its the only present he wants The other is shot entirely through Claire's MacBook and shows off all the multitasking and communication she can do with it” —Docphilsman
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