The era of product placement as a replacement for traditional advertising has come of age. Last year, the number of times a product made an appearance in television programming jumped 30 percent to
108, 261, according to Nielsen Media Research, which has been tracking the tactic for the last three years. NBC ranked highest with 7,470 instances of a product being shown on its reality show "The
Contender" alone and an additional 3,009 placement shots on "The Apprentice." "We're living in a crazy new world," said Gary Newman, president of 20th Century Fox Television, which produces "24." "The
old formulas don't necessarily work. We have to be smart and find new ways to monetize the value of our programs," he said. There is no standard model for placements. Product integration efforts can
be as obvious as Eva Longoria taking work as a spokesmodel for Buick on "Desperate Housewives," or as subversive as the cast of "Arrested Development" making fun of Burger King at a Burger King. Even
though the practice is so popular, no quantitative studies have yet proven the effect of product integration. Also, consumers' and writers' groups have complained that the practice is turning
prime-time shows into infomercials.
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