Product Placement for Dummies

One of the most annoying things about watching Swedish TV (and there are several of them to choose from) is the practice of creating commercials that are actually styled after the program they are running in.  An advertisement for a pain reliever, for example, is shot with the same jerky camera style and pacing that is the hallmark of "ER" and then runs several times adjacent to that show.

I've seen others that are even more blatantly manipulative.  There's a commercial for a brand of flavoured sparkling water that appears as though it was filmed on the set of "Friends".  Even a rip-off of the show's interim music (the stuff you hear as the commercial break ends and the show resumes) plays underneath it...so it looks as though Monica's fridge is stocked with the stuff.

I used to think it was the companies doing the advertising that were behind this particular product placement strategy. But after seeing a commercial for Scandinavian Airlines run during a Discovery Network documentary about airline disasters tonight, I'm leaning more toward a drunk student intern who was left in charge of the switcher while the rest of the rest of the control room staff was on a fika break.

tags: tv  swedish  

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