• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, November 20, 2006

When you think "Top Chef," does TGI Friday's come to mind?

As a West Coast/East Coast food snob, I'm thinking more Danny Meyer's restaurants--Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, The Modern.

Still, I'll play along. Everybody needs a little twist in the blender.

In trying to re-create a dish from their childhood--just with an adult spin--contestants on the Bravo show "Top Chef" were vying for a chance to be on the menu of some 500 TGI Friday's restaurants.

I'm not buying that getting into TGI Friday's is an ultimate foodie's goal. Hopefully, in all walks of work life, you dream about what a job could become. That should go double when doing it on TV.

For TGI Friday's? What can I say? It was mentioned about a zillion times. But just like mediocre food with lots of xanthan gum, the product placement wasn't really "organic." Preservatives were thrown in to make it long-lasting. The taste was something else.

NBC's "Friday Night Lights" and Applebee's A more subtle, plain-Jane approach comes with NBC's "Friday Night Lights" and Applebee's. In the show, a visitor from Los Angeles basically camps out in a restaurant to eat and do daytime computer/mobile phone work at the bar, while interacting with character Tyra.

Product placement like this still works well because it's part--but not an overwhelming part--of the show's content. We need just a backdrop sometimes.

Here and there you catch bits of the restaurant's logo, and other branding stuff. That's plenty. No doubt, it'll sink into my subconscious--just when I'm headed to IHOP. Applebee's meets the organic threshold of placement: It's strictly sugar-free, gluten-free, wheat-free, but surprisingly, not taste-free.

Comedy Central's South Park-Nintendo Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo. Hear it enough on some "South Park" animation, and it can sound like a stampede of wild horses. Looking at how Sony PlayStation P3 sales soared this past weekend at stores, Nintendo could only hope for its own scenes of crushed humanity.

"South Park" star Cartman wants the new Nintendo Wii, and it can't come soon enough. He has put himself into deep freeze--literally in the snow--to avoid the pain of waiting for the new version.

Cryogenically, Cartman wants that crystal-clean feeling of a newly defrosted video game brain. But instead, he gets himself 500 years into the future, when new-wave human beings don't understand his plight. They try to resolve it by misinterpreting the absence of video games in future society. It's because everyone is now an atheist.

No doubt this sends a mixed message to the youth of America--the primary show watchers. Like the ancient practice of yoga, video games are not a religion. But you can use them to work through some craving technology issues.

ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and State Farm In the reality vein, "Makeover" does a better job than most in quick-hitting its product placements.

Sponsoring a checklist for home-construction safety issues, the star workers on the show quickly offer a brochure from the insurer, State Farm, with its logo prominently displayed.

They quickly go through the list, with everything getting the "A-OK," and the segment is over. We are not beaten over the head with the company's name, or what it can do for us.

Viewers can be especially appreciative of the subtlety, since homeowners can get behind on their premiums--although few carry decades' worth of claims. We rest assured that home insurers are only thinking of our well-being.