Talk Shows Infested By Corporate Plugs Masquerading As Gags
Edrants.com spliced together all the brand-name references slipped into recent episodes of The Jay Leno Show, Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. This isn't just Jay riding an elevator with a guy in a Snapple costume, but a seemingly endless barrage of paid-for jokes nested within other plugs and run-on "sketches" like a grilling of the Wendy's mascot (The Office's Kate Flannery). In the case of Leno, fine, it's gross but seemingly in line with everything else going on over there -- but when Conan slipped in a seemingly off-the-cuff reference to a Subway sub during a recent interview, we'd suddenly felt violated by a meaty footlong. All three videos are after the jump.
[via thrfeed.com]
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I can see it with Leno - maybe even Conan, but Letterman doesn't endorse anything and has never bent to even his own sponsors. Shamwow, Cinnabon in Airport, Plaxico Burress in Applebees, him as a greeter at WalMart, and every other corporate reference on Letterman are merely his humor. I've watched him since his morning show 27 years ago, and he is making fun of these Middle America brands - not endorsing them. If you know Letterman, you'd understand that. The only thing he endorses is his heart surgeon. Everything else, he's making fun of. (Which has gotten him sued in the past, but he just doesn't give a crap.)
this reminds me of the payola scandal on radio in the 50's. Just say no and turn to another channel.
Conan's BEEN selling out for a while, I remember a skit quite some time ago T.G.I. Fridays from around America, was offering insults to the banality of the chain-menu, while zooming in and describing dishes/drinks etc. This is a major issue with many of my favorite shows (I am somehow very lonely in my hatred for the god awful Warcraft episode, the psp episode, the wii episodes, etc.)
The last sentence in my previous comment refering to southpark sorry
It's getting worse in sports each year too - besides the MLS jersey advertising, the NFL TV shows are just buried in pitches, references, ads, visuals, etc. - not much football left anymore.
The best kind of violation is a meaty footlong violation.
Glad you mentioned it. I was about to look on YouTube for Conan's Warcraft episode clips while eating my FOOTLONG™ SUBWAY® sandwich.
Yeah, screw the advertisers -- I mean, why can't they just give us entertainment for free??? How dare they have people sponsor their productions!??
I'm jk -- I agree that it's insidious and feels evil. I like the old days, when we could just use our fantastic Tivos* to fast-forward through advertising.
(Tivo® is a registered trademark of Tivo of America, all rights reserved, 2009)
And you can't leave out the long-time shilling by Stephen Colbert. He's always pushing Slice or some desperate brand.
This is a little misleading.
In the Conan video, it's edited to seem like PAtton Oswalt said "that's what the network told me to say" after he mentions Now & Later candy. But on the show, he said that line much later about something that had nothing to do with any product.
Although I don't doubt there are paid mentions on these shows, a lot of this has to do with topicality... Is mentioning popular TV shows or products really that unusual? They're trying to make jokes about pop culture, which means some of that has to be in there no matter what.
I think you're reading too much into this stuff - their audience is middle-america, so why wouldn't they be talking about products they know? Wouldn't be funny to talk about Gucci or Prada because lots of them might not know those brands.
And the 2-nights-in-a-row thing? If you'd left them in, I'm sure you'd see it was a different joke, which means the writers thought up another joke about the same topic that they thought was funnier than the previous nights'.
This isn't just in talk shows, check out any news show, sitcom, reality show, gameshow really anything on TV at all. It's one long commercial 24hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year. Every spot "brought to you by" isn't just going to mention that in the beginning but throughout the whole segment. Hell even movies are riddled with product placement, the worst of which I think I've ever seen is the Fantastic Four Movie which a fight scene took place in some billboard advertising dumpster, that also happened to be a crowded street.
Just remember you can find all these products and more at, in or near your local gigantor discount megastore, stay tuned for more junk we're gonna try and sell you!
You've mysteriously left out Jimmy Fallon. It's the worst of the bunch at blatant corporate plugs.
This has been happening since TV was introduced. Nothing new here.
i dont know about you but i suddenly have craving for wendy's.
I'm getting pretty sick of The Colbert Report because of the blatant product placement. Often he just makes comparisons to specific brand products, but occasionally the premise of a whole segments will be a ruse to end up talking for 5 mins straight about a brand or specific product. I understand that advertisers need to find ways to 'combat' DVRs and commercial skipping, but it's just getting ridiculous. I would probably have less problem with it, if these blatant product placements and corporate plugs were *instead* of some traditional TV commercials. But they're not. They're in *addition*!
I think the real social commentary here is that you don't recognize that. without these evil product placements, we wouldn't have the quality programming we have today. If it so bad, consider smashing your TV like I did.... very therapeutic
I'm surprised you didn't show Jimmy Kimmel. electronic cigarette Every one of Kimmel's skits is corporate plugs.
It really doesn't surprise me. But hey, if you have to acknowledge a sponsor, you might as well rip into them while you're at it.
I would probably have less problem with it, if these blatant product placements and corporate plugs were instead of some traditional TV commercials. But they're not. They're in addition!
Every spot "brought to you by" isn't just going to mention that in the beginning but throughout the whole segment.
they make tons of money through just advertising during breaks. But that's not enough for them, they have to keep putting more and more ads in, squeezing them in everywhere they can, cutting down show times for even more ads, and now product placement in very subtle ways.It's not because they're "just trying to get by and can't make a profit" It's because of pure greed. And there are no more people fast forwarding through ads than there were those who just changed the channel in the past.
This post highlights a very common fact............this is happening since a very long time and is sure to traverse a long way......
Advertisements mint lots and lots of money.....there is no doubt in that and the same is going to happen for a long time!!!!!!!
Advertisements are ruling the TV channels,having a more powerful command than the shows being broadcasted on that channel......