Dear companies (mainly toyota) i know you think you are soo smart for finding a way to force those of us who have a DVR to watch commercials. But stopping the plot line of our favorite tv show to educate us how a prius can park it's self is stupid. If you just showed the character letting the prius park itself without the play by play it wouldn't be too bad but the plot tangent caused by the main character discussing your car, unrelated to the plot for 2 minutes pisses me off. Did you ever think that the people willing to pay 6-12 bucks per month to not watch your effing commercials may actually be pushed away from your brand because you pissed them off during a TV show?

/rant


P.s. i'm ok with the good guys driving Brand X and my favorite character drinking brand y. But stopping the show for the main characters to essentially incorporate your commercial into their show is ONLY going to piss people off.

Thank you,
-foo1

5/11/2011 8:28:49 AM

adds

5/11/2011 8:30:40 AM

i thought i should check that but decided mehh... go for it.

honestly this early in the morn i'm not even bothered by that.

lol

5/11/2011 8:32:01 AM

what show was this?

Some shows are better at product placement than others. People in TV shows live in the real world, therefore it makes sense for them to use brands. It just can't be annoying. The Office does it best. Michael has the Dundee awards at Chili's, he read a Newsweek in the doctor's office, etc.

5/11/2011 8:33:31 AM

5/11/2011 8:49:15 AM

fringe is really bad for doing this with sprint & ford

5/11/2011 9:04:39 AM

^^^ yeah but when The Office does it I always see it as ironic

because Michael is such a schmuck - why would I ever go to Chili's or read Newsweek unless I wanted to be a schmuck too

5/11/2011 11:17:48 AM

Which show was this?

5/11/2011 11:19:55 AM

Bones does toyota and they're terrible and completely un-related to anything.

a random parking scene

5/11/2011 11:22:08 AM

Holy crap that was bad. And I like that show too.

Although I never watch it when it's new, I don't even know what channel it comes on . I just catch it on TNT sometimes.

[Edited on May 11, 2011 at 11:24 AM. Reason : ]

5/11/2011 11:24:14 AM

I knew this would be about Bones. They also do it with phones. :/

5/11/2011 11:35:22 AM

Vampire Diaries does this with phones and Prius

5/11/2011 11:46:19 AM

Hawaii 5-0 did this with the Onstar Link in a Chevy Cobalt last week as well.

5/11/2011 11:47:59 AM

^^ haha a fellow vamp diaries person! excited for the season finale.

5/11/2011 11:55:50 AM

Biggest Loser is the king and pioneer in the field. All these others are just hack jobs trying to keep their show on air.

5/11/2011 12:01:23 PM

Chuck is pretty bad with Subway

5/11/2011 12:05:21 PM

Quote :

"^^ haha a fellow vamp diaries person! excited for the season finale."

I can't wait to see what happens!

5/11/2011 12:59:25 PM

^^ i quit watching chuck this season... it became too mainstream with not enough dork humor.

5/11/2011 2:15:35 PM

i don't watch this show, so i have no context for that

but it could be argued that they're mocking the agreed upon product placement by drawing so much attention to it

the "does it solve murders" line is acknowledging to the viewer that they know it's stupid, essentially making toyota look dumb for having so little faith in the viewer's intelligence versus risking that it look like the producers are the ones with that lack of faith

plus, it draws attention to the fact that it's just a dumb procedural tv show, which is always good

5/11/2011 2:20:33 PM

yeah, it's no community! or sanford and son! or whatever cultural elitist hipster shit you go for.

[Edited on May 11, 2011 at 2:40 PM. Reason : .]

5/11/2011 2:38:34 PM

there's nothing wrong with dumb procedural shows

i watch law & order and monk all the time

but they're not thought-provoking and it's silly to act like they're important

5/11/2011 2:41:31 PM

omg the only episode I've ever seen of Bones was a rerun last week, it was about a witch whose house burned down and they found two skeletons inside. Anyways, BLATANT product placement with a car two people were driving in. The characters thought it was so awesome that the car told them they were moving out their lane, and after showing it off the driver was pulled over by another cop and the two people in the car ended up being stuck in jail and at the end of the episode they got married in the jail cell.

I've never watched Bones before(dont even know how old the show is), but I'm a big Buffy fan and thought it'd be funny to see Angel out in the sunlight and all (lol) but this episode turned me off from the series.

5/11/2011 2:48:19 PM

it's silly to act like any TV show is important..

5/11/2011 3:55:27 PM

Quote :

"yeah, it's no community! or sanford and son! or whatever cultural elitist hipster shit you go for."

yeah, gotta love how hipster and non-mainstream fucking NBC is.

it's not our fault that Community is so well-written

5/11/2011 3:58:35 PM

Wait, who is adding things?

5/11/2011 4:00:00 PM

That is some weak ass trolling Madman

5/11/2011 4:11:06 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9vu3dUMQ1s

5/11/2011 4:12:28 PM

I have no regrets

5/11/2011 5:24:19 PM

5/11/2011 7:04:13 PM

Quote :

"'Podbuster' Ads, Calculated To Make You Hit Pause Call it smart advertising — or bad boundaries. You may have noticed a spike in the number of TV commercials designed to look and feel like whatever show you're watching. They're called podbusters, DVR busters or interstitial ads, and they're designed to remove viewers' fingers from the fast-forward button during blocks — or "pods" — of ads. The advent of TiVo and similar devices can be thanked for the rise of the podbusters. About 40 percent of households have DVRs — meaning 40 percent of households can easily zip past commercials. Think of podbusters as speed bumps for ads. "

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/12/132838343/podbuster-ads-calculated-to-make-you-hit-pause

5/11/2011 7:09:21 PM