I don’t know about the rest of the American public, but I’m really, really, really tired of product placements in television shows and life in general. I think what finally made me snap was the “Memoirs of a Geisha” movie mentions/product placement peppered through a recent episode of “Medium”.
“Hey do you want to see Memoirs of a Geisha”, he asked as he held up a full-page ad in the newspaper, “You really enjoyed the book, I heard the movie is just as good.”
Then later…
“What are you guys here to see?” “Memoirs of a Geisha”. “Oh we just saw it, and it was a very good movie, you’ll really enjoy it.”
Since the lead character is a psychic, she already knows if she’ll enjoy the movie or not, why waste time talking about it? Oh, because at the commercial break there was an ad for, wait for it, “Memoirs of a Geisha”.
I started getting ticked off at the product placements during an episode of The West Wing when Donna walked down a hotel hallway carrying a FedEx tube by the end so she wouldn’t block the FedEx logo, then Josh made coffee in the complimentary coffee maker from Holiday Inn, which had a logo larger than the coffee maker itself, then Will went to get an ice cream sandwich type thing which was two seconds away from star billing for the show when they lingered on the “Nestle” logo for an uncomfortably long amount of time.
Why are we allowing these product placements and rampant commercialism to take over the country? First it started with the stadiums. Syracuse had MacArthur Stadium. Folks called it Big Mac. Then they ripped it down and built a new one. “P & C Stadium”. Of course P & C went bankrupt so now it’s “Alliance Bank Stadium”. Oy. Was Mac Arthur a bad boy and had to have his stadium taken away from him? It was built in the same spot, it should still be Mac Arthur Stadium. “Mile High Stadium” in Denver, even though it’s not the original, should still be called “Mile High Stadium”, not “Revolving Name Bank After Latest Merger Stadium”.
DisneyWorld is not better. Planet Earth, brought to you by AT&T. It’s A Small, Small, Small World brought to you by Infiniti.
The New York State Fair? “The Verizon Center of Progress Building.” Like Verizon has ever been in the center of progress.
What’s next, freeway signs? “Next Rest Area brought to you by Ex-Lax.”
At least there’s a rumbling out there of people fighting back. Take a peek at Jerri Manthey’s Survivor Outtakes. It shows how ridiculous this all has really has become.
I sit here writing my blog entry, one hand on my work supplied Dell keyboard in front of my Dell monitor. I’m drinking a Diet Pepsi and I have my hand on my chin. I then notice how smooth my skin is after shaving this morning. I’m so glad I used Barbasol.
