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Has TV Product Placement Crossed the Line With iPad Story Line on ‘Modern Family’?

Apr 2, 2010  •  Post A Comment

Product placement is nothing new on television, yet the heavy-handed integration of several products on ABC’s "Modern Family" and Fox’s "American Idol" have raised questions about when such integration goes too far, the Hollywood Reporter says.

"Modern Family," for example, this week featured a story line focused on Phil’s family’s comedic efforts to buy him an Apple iPad on the day of its release. But the product was so heavily touted in the episode that many viewers believed ABC received payment from Apple, the article says.

In fact, that wasn’t the case, with "Modern Family" co-creator telling THR that "there were no stipulations as with normal product placement; it was all story driven."

It was anotther story with the "Clash of the Titans" promotion on "Idol," which THR said "the most jarring placement on the show since Mike Myers’ ‘Love Guru’ character graced the ‘Idol’ stage."  says.

The real danger, the article says, is that fans end up discussing the product placements and their disappointment, rather than the shows themselves.

4 Comments

  1. Huh? The show first claims this was not a paid product placement, but confusingly the quote from the show co-creator implies that it was, but somehow sans stipulation. (Even as the script slobbered all over the product aps.)
    They seemed to twist themselves in pretzel knots for this, um, non-product placement placement storyline, as it was the SECOND time in a dozen or so episodes that the Phil character has celebrated a birthday! So are we to suppose that more than a year has gone by on the show? Then why hasn’t baby Lily aged correspondingly?

  2. You can’t even go to the movies anymore, w/o watching a 1/2 hours worth of TV commercials!!! This whole thing is really starting to suck. And they wonder why we TiVo!

  3. On LEAVE IT TO BEAVER, the Beav only poured Purina Dog Chow. I love product placement. I wish it was all product placement rather than 12 unit spot breaks.

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