So product placement is a big thing in US TV. In an age when ratings are dropping, Internet viewing is increasing, people skim through shows on PVR, foreign sales are a big source of revenue and boxsets are binged aplenty, the chances that anyone will even get the chance to see an ad you’ve bought during an ad break, let alone watch it, are getting smaller and smaller every day. On the other hand, stick one of your products in the show and no matter which medium the viewer uses to watch the show, wherever they are in the world, they will see that product in action at 1x speed.
Obviously, you have to spend more to get that product into the show, and such is the cash required, it’s often been able to keep afloat shows such as Chuck and Heroes that would have died sooner if they’d relied purely on ad break funding. There’s competition with other advertisers, too, since there’s only so many cars that can be driven or Subway sandwiches eaten per episode.
So spare a thought for TNT’s The Last Ship, which appears to have had the novel idea of piggybacking two product placements on top of each other. Unfortunately, I don’t think Apple are going to be very happy with them for doing that.
Here, we have a perfectly humble webcam being shown off to punters. It’s the end of the world, the captain of The Last Ship is recording possibly the most vital messages possible for his family – he’s going to want good HD quality recordings. And the webcam glows all blue, which is cool!
I must buy this webcam!
Except… it turns out that he’s using a MacBook Air to make his recording.
Cool laptop that. Problem is that the MacBook Air has a built-in HD webcam. In fact, it’s right underneath that other webcam the captain’s using.
So either the captain’s a technological idiot or his lovely MacBook has broken at a vital moment in world history. Not the message Apple wants to be sending out with The Last Ship.
I will not buy this MacBook Air.
Particularly since it’s very, very expensive.
Disclaimer: this post was in no way sponsored by anyone, particularly Apple or any webcam manufacturers. Of course, if they want to, I’m not going to say no…
