• by David Goetzl , November 1, 2007

At a Beverly Hills conference this week, a top Deutsch executive offered up what could serve as a new litmus test for how well a product placement is executed. "Don't let them feel the money changing hands," Adweek reported him saying.

In other words, marketers should find a way to weave a product into a show delicately enough that a viewer doesn't feel like the commercials have just extended from the break into the action.

By that standard, Wrigley's integration in a recent episode of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" had to be considered a flop. Savvy viewers could just about hear the proverbial "Cha-ching."

Simply put: The Wrigley scene felt like a commercial--and one from the "Mad Men" era, if not before.

"The Biggest Loser" features two teams battling to collectively lose the most weight. Each has a trainer helping as they aim to drop the pounds.

On the Oct. 16 episode, one of the coaches, Jillian Michaels, enters from stage left to find her team preparing lunch. Then the spot begins...

"You want to know a good trick ... Whenever you're cooking, notice you kind of nibble a little here, nibble a little bit there ... One really good tip is to chew a piece of gum ... ," she says.

Good enough. It's an attractive notion--and a long-held one, maybe more out of reverie than reality--that gnawing on a cinnamon-flavored stick can help reduce weight gain via appetite suppression. (For Wrigley, the concept is the subject of a new marketing push, and the company has even formed a Wrigley Science Institute to prove it and found some academics to help).

But then Michaels begins to look and sound as if she were starring in an ad airing 50 years ago during "I Love Lucy":

"My favorite is Wrigley's Extra Supermint gum," she says, thrusting a pack front and center with her right hand. It's surprising that she doesn't flash an ear-to-ear grin.

On cue, a team member lofts a softball, asking how many calories are in a piece. "5 calories--it's nothing," she replies. Then a contestant eagerly takes one (one of the top product placements of the week, according to measurement firm iTVX.)

While Michaels' info may be true and even appealing to a viewer, the scene feels about as genuine as the Wrigley Science Institute.

What's worse from a credibility perspective is Michaels' suggestion that "Extra Supermint" has been her "favorite" for some time.

The brand hit the market in mid-September.

Another expert at the marketing conference this week said branded integration has begun deterring viewers en masse. "We're turning consumers into skeptics," he said.

This was likely another example.