A New Low for Product Placement?

As you know, since the advent of Tivos and DVRs, the visibility of commercials has gone down. No one really likes most commercials - they are loud, often obnoxious, and only designed to manipulate the viewer into buying things. So the ability to zip past them to watch the main event, the actual television show itself, is a welcome relief for many of us.

The problem, of course, is that the commercial is what pays for the airing of the show, not the viewer. I remember being so surprised as a girl when I realized that we didn't pay anything for the shows we watched (obviously before the days of HBO, Pay-Per-View, and well, even cable). We paid for everything else - why not the shows we watched? Instead, it is the advertiser who pays for what we see. They give money to the show so their commercial airs during the breaks. And, because we are such sheep, we actually base some of our decisions on what we see in those commercials. But that is a soapbox I won't get into now.

But now advertisers have to figure out a way to get their commericals seen. One way is to place the product in the actual show itself. In Heroes once, Hiro threw car keys to Ando and told him to "take the Versa." On The Closer, the Chief takes one of her staff person's Prius, and refers to it by name. Damages and Cadillac had a deal where a number of clues were given in one of their SUVs. I don't watch a lot of reality shows, but I've heard they are the biggest offenders of product placement. The funniest product placement was seen in 30 Rock, when two characters discussed the great service Verizon gives its customers. Tina Fey then looks at the camera asking, "Can we have our money now?"

Sometimes product placements don't interrupt the storyline at all. Most people I know who own Priuses refer to their car by name. But Hiro's use of the word "Versa" actually took me out of the storyline in confusion. I had never heard of a Versa - did people actually refer to it that way? It turns out, no. The clues in the Cadillac were actually the most confusing and unrelated of all the clues in the less than stellar second season of Damages.

Thursday night, I had an opportunity to see product placement that almost took over an episode of television. You may have heard of a little movie coming out called Avatar? Even I have heard of it. And so have the squints on Bones. Fisher, my least favorite of the not-Zack interns, has scored three tickets. And he recognizes that Hodgins and Sweets are probably as geeky as he is in his desire to see the movie on the first possible day. They agree that they need to camp out at the theater to make sure they get good seats, so they develop a schedule. Which is interrupted, of course, by the investigation into the murder of the week.

They storyline almost worked for these characters, since they are all more or less nerds who probably would have given their right arm to see the movie on its premiere day. I could see them developing a schedule for protecting their spot in line. And it led to Sweets realizing that his relationship with Daisy is way more satisfying than Fisher's one night stands. What pushed it beyond the limits, however, was the airing of a commercial during the actual episode itself. They used Angela's pretty cool computer screen, and Hodgins declared he couldn't tell what was special effects and what wasn't anymore. Really Jack? The paranoid genius with a strong cynical nature can't figure out what is CGI? Whatever.

I don't know how much Avatar paid to get this product placement, but as the "b" storyline of the episode, it got a prominent place in the episode. It will most certainly date the episode during reruns and syndication. Perhaps instead of slicing actual plot like they do in syndication, however, they can lose the Avatar in-episode commercial. Unless it is the DVD of Avatar paying for the airing of the rerun.

Heroes No More

When Heroes premiered in 2006, I watched with interest. It's not a big surprise that I, the geek, would be interested in a show about comic book characters. The first episode was mildly entertaining, but I remember telling my husband that the show was a mess. But as the season progressed, I became entranced and couldn't stop myself from watching. There were a few reasons. The most obvious reason was the character, Hiro. Hiro was a young Japanese drone and ultimate geek who embraced the new powers that he developed. The actor, Masi Oka, is delightful and charismatic and made Hiro a fun character to watch. Hiro also had Ando, the best sidekick ever.

The other compelling character was HRG, who we later learned was named Noah Bennet. HRG was a company man whose mission in life was to monitor humans with powers and imprison them if necessary. His work life was hidden from his wife and children, one of whom was an adopted daughter upon whom HRG doted. The daughter, of course, was the cheerleader, who had to be saved so that the world could be saved. Jack Coleman did a great job of showing us the complications in HRG's life, as well as what he suffered for the choices he made.

But that wasn't all; the themes of Heroes was interesting. What is the meaning of family? Of loyalty? What is destiny? What is survival?

There were two things that sealed the deal for me. George Takei's role as Hiro's dad was fun and well-done. I laughed with joy when he pulled out a sword in full Sulu-style. The other deal-maker was The Company Man, an episode that focused on HRG's motivations.

The first season was far from perfect. Sylar was an interesting villain, but he was too evil. Was he an interesting villain because the actor was so good? And the big finale wasn't all that big.

It was downhill from there on out. Claire was whiny, Sylar was evil, and some Latina cried killer tears. Suresh was desparate to get powers and Hiro was stuck in medieval Japan. Nothing was believable and the characters were mangled beyond recognition. Characters would die, but would be brought back, perhaps as someone's twin! Every break, the producers would declare that they had messed up and the next chapter would bring Heroes back to what it was. Only, it never happened. It just turned into a bigger mess.

The producers are again promising that Heroes will be back, better than ever. But I don't believe them. I've already deleted the show from my DVR. Will I regret this? I doubt it.