Friday Ad Haiku: Product Placement

Watched the latest episode of Entourage and couldn't help but notice the gratuitous Bud and Bud Light placement.

Product placement is heady business. It either makes sense for the character and story, or it doesn't; it blends in if it does and distracts if it doesn't. But I'm more likely to believe long-necked aliens scarf down Reeses' Pieces than I am that Bud light longnecks are the first choice of musical icons and faux celebs.

I'm a bad check away from homelessness half the time, and even I can pony up a few extra bucks for a sixer of something that's not consumed from novelty hard hats with tubes.

I see where they're going, of course. After the InBev coup de tat, the marketing boys are looking for smarter (read: cheaper) ways to push the brand. Placement in a popular TV series--whether it makes sense storywise or not--is Bud's version of spending wisely. Especially when you consider their pre-InBev marketing budget meetings probably looked a lot like Scrooge McDuck taking a dive into the money vault.


Here's to product placement.

Horatio Caine's
been shot! Quick! Somebody get
me a Diet Coke.
Previously in the Friday 5-7-5: The Traffic Department