Beer product placement - good and bad

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jfowler1

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It always catches my eye when a TV show uses the same product placements over and over again. Two beer examples come to mind, but one really pisses me off.

I have seen it discussed before, but the show Weeds constantly has Stone Brewing as a featured product. Andy drinks it, they have billboards at bus stops, etc. I think that is pretty cool - California based show, featuring a California brewed beer.

On the flip side, my wife and I have been watching True Blood on DVD. The show is based out of Louisiana, and almost every bar scene at Sam's restaurant shows someone pulling a pint from an Abita Turbodog tap handle. Waitresses will actually call it by name - "Can I get another Abita?" If you have never tried it, Turbodog is a dark brown ale (almost black). The problem is that the beer that comes out of the tap looks more like Bud Light.

I think I am most offended by this because Turbodog was my gateway beer, so I will always have a special affinity towards it. I just can't believe the show made the effort to feature a local product, but then completely misrepresents what the product is. A nice effort, but but a complete lack of authenticity.

Has anyone else noticed this issue, or anything similar?

Joe
 
Yes but with other products than beer. IMO TV has not been worth watching for a long time, so much so that we only get what we can pull in with an antenna for free! TV shows now are like watching a string of giant commercials that make up a story, with real commercials every 8.5 minutes. I wonder why ADD has been on the rise... :rolleyes:

The Cable Guy said:
Someone has to kill the babysitter!
Click to expand...

I find it more relaxing to surf forums and research my hobbies than to watch TV. Knowledge is free and doing things is fun!
 
are you sure its the turbo dog that they're pouring? they have a few others that are much lighter.
 
Turbodog is a tap handle I know very well.

If it was a one time thing, I could surely be mistaken - but I think it has happened in every episode so far in season 3.
 
I noticed the Weeds thing too. It's only in season 6 though.

I've caught a glimpse of them drinking Yuengling on Bones before. On It's Always Sunny in Philly they usually have cases of decent beer in the background of the bar scenes.
 
Zamial said:
Yes but with other products than beer. IMO TV has not been worth watching for a long time, so much so that we only get what we can pull in with an antenna for free! TV shows now are like watching a string of giant commercials that make up a story, with real commercials every 8.5 minutes. I wonder why ADD has been on the rise... :rolleyes:



I find it more relaxing to surf forums and research my hobbies than to watch TV. Knowledge is free and doing things is fun!
Click to expand...

Amen, brother!!! Cut the cable three years ago and never looked back. Now we're that weird family that does things like talk and has campfires in the backyard while the rest of the neighborhoods inside glued to the toob. My wife and I were just talking about that last night, how nice it is when Joe co-worker asks 'did ya see such n such last night? Oh man, blah blah blibbity....' and you answer 'nope, don't really watch tv'. The look ya get is priceless! Sorry, way OT. :off:
 
I catch reruns of 2 and half men. If they are drinking beer at their local bar it is usually Sam Adams. I noticed Stone in Weeds. Probably the best placement was when they were at some outdoor concert and they went to a beer tent where the Arrogant Bastard tap handle was in the shot for about a minute.
 
Dunno if a faulty color would bother me... (I doubt they're actually pouring beer in the first place) but it does bother me when the product placement is out of place...

Like when I watch Fringe and the scene is dark and moody and all of a sudden they do something like, "I'll call Walter on my Ford Sync system..." followed by a closeup of the sync, and that stupid Bloink...

Ugh... I hate that.
 
I just saw transformers 3 last weekend and the product placement was off the charts. When this movie comes out on dvd I am going to watch it slowly while recording every brand name and how many times they each appear and translate that into who paid the most amount of money to appear in this movie. Should make a pretty decent blog post for my beginning business career.
 
Off topic but still on topic for Product Placements:

Pawn Stars is my favorite Sub Way commercial. Each episode it seems now ends with Rick handing out Sub Way breakfast sandwiches. It's freaking terrible.
 
Eh, beer or not, I agree with Lynch: [ame="http://youtu.be/F4wh_mc8hRE"]http://youtu.be/F4wh_mc8hRE[/ame]
 
screamingcities said:
Like when I watch Fringe and the scene is dark and moody and all of a sudden they do something like, "I'll call Walter on my Ford Sync system..." followed by a closeup of the sync, and that stupid Bloink...

Ugh... I hate that.
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Bones is terrible for the same thing - only it's Toyota. SWMBO and I love Bones. We also happen to love our Toyotas. Just not both at the same time. ;)

And I don't know how I've missed the Stone placements in Weeds - gonna have to start watching a bit closer, I think.
 
stratslinger said:
And I don't know how I've missed the Stone placements in Weeds - gonna have to start watching a bit closer, I think.
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Stone is constantly in Weeds. Someone else mentioned a tap handle at a concert, but I missed that one.

I believe there are several occasions where Stone IPA is being consumed from the bottle, but last season, while the family was in Seattle, there was a huge Arrogant Bastard poster at a bus stop.
 
Cable tv shows in general are bad for product placement. Burn Notice is Hyundai, or was. Ditto for Leverage. White Collar is Ford. Mostly just leads to a few awkward shoehorned lines.
 
NCIS is Dodge, or at least it was when I watched it. Fringe is Ford. Car placements have to be some of the worst and most obvious.
 
jfowler1 said:
Stone is constantly in Weeds. Someone else mentioned a tap handle at a concert, but I missed that one.
Click to expand...

IIRC, I believe it's in the season when they move to Seattle and start living with Nancy's old high school teacher.
 
I've been watching Treme lately, the HBO show about post-katrina new orleans, they have a lot of abita placement as well. I thought it was cool that they featured a local craft brew and not a BMC variant.
 
I cut the cord (read: my wife's cable) two years ago and haven't been happier. I have noticed in the interim that they have started really pounding product placement
 
weagle05 said:
It's only going to get worse, now they are putting new product placement in repeat episodes...
http://consumerist.com/2011/07/dvd-...nserted-into-how-i-met-your-mother-rerun.html
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The most elaborate example of a product placement change was probably the film Demolition Man. Originally every restaurant in the future was a Taco Bell (Taco Bell being the lone survivor of the fast food wars) and then in some later release of the movie they'd changed them all to Pizza Huts. Odd, because those restaurants were both owned by the same company.
 
stratslinger said:
And I don't know how I've missed the Stone placements in Weeds - gonna have to start watching a bit closer, I think.
Click to expand...

I never noticed it either. Ever. Can't really be all that successful then :)
 
emjay said:
I never noticed it either. Ever. Can't really be all that successful then :)
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You guys need to pay closer attention:

tumblr_kxuji5fTIZ1qzj5u8o1_400.jpg


Andy+drinking+Stone.jpg
 
I've seen sierra nevada pale ale and pilsner urquell on friends a few times, 6 packs on the top of their fridge or drinking them at a restaurant, once saw them drinking sn pa out the bottle. mmm yeast.
 
Honestly I see no problem with product placement in TV shows, provided it is done tastefully. Awesome to see some craft breweries getting placed, whether they paid for it or the director just wants to show support.

Though they usually try to turn the bottles or black out the name, I've seen some craft beers (or at least Sam Adams) on all the Top Chef variants except maybe Just Desserts. Can't remember all of them but I think I've seen SN before. story about some beers in Top Chef
 
jfowler1 said:
It always catches my eye when a TV show uses the same product placements over and over again. Two beer examples come to mind, but one really pisses me off.

I have seen it discussed before, but the show Weeds constantly has Stone Brewing as a featured product. Andy drinks it, they have billboards at bus stops, etc. I think that is pretty cool - California based show, featuring a California brewed beer.

On the flip side, my wife and I have been watching True Blood on DVD. The show is based out of Louisiana, and almost every bar scene at Sam's restaurant shows someone pulling a pint from an Abita Turbodog tap handle. Waitresses will actually call it by name - "Can I get another Abita?" If you have never tried it, Turbodog is a dark brown ale (almost black). The problem is that the beer that comes out of the tap looks more like Bud Light.

I think I am most offended by this because Turbodog was my gateway beer, so I will always have a special affinity towards it. I just can't believe the show made the effort to feature a local product, but then completely misrepresents what the product is. A nice effort, but but a complete lack of authenticity.

Has anyone else noticed this issue, or anything similar?

Joe
Click to expand...

The golden-colored Bud Light is more commonly viewed as "beer", by the general tv viewer. A dark chocolate malt will generally be perceived to be cola rather than beer.

Also, in real life, bars frequently use the wrong tap handles. At my bar, we serve Coors Light through a Modelo tap handle. :tank:

King of Queens, you always see MHL.
 
Check out Parks and Recreation....although it is a show about the Indiana state parks they have Upland beer on a regular basis.
 
ChillWill said:
I've seen sierra nevada pale ale and pilsner urquell on friends a few times, 6 packs on the top of their fridge or drinking them at a restaurant, once saw them drinking sn pa out the bottle. mmm yeast.
Click to expand...

You beat me to it. I'm pretty sure for the majority of the duration of that show in Chandler and Joey's apartment there was always a different six pack on top of their fridge, usually something halfway decent. Definitely remember the sierra nevada
 
Zamial said:
Yes but with other products than beer. IMO TV has not been worth watching for a long time, so much so that we only get what we can pull in with an antenna for free! TV shows now are like watching a string of giant commercials that make up a story, with real commercials every 8.5 minutes. I wonder why ADD has been on the rise... :rolleyes:

I find it more relaxing to surf forums and research my hobbies than to watch TV. Knowledge is free and doing things is fun!
Click to expand...

Amen!! I rarely watch tv anymore. I think I burned less brain cells when I used to smoke pot than I do if I watch most TV. I am almost anti tv now.

I spend much more time online researching and learning things.

Even when my wife wants to watch a movie I can barely sit through most of them because I feel like I can be doing something better with my time.

I guess I must not be like most of America because product placements do nothing to inspire me to buy that product.
 
ozzy1038 said:
Amen!! I rarely watch tv anymore. I think I burned less brain cells when I used to smoke pot than I do if I watch most TV. I am almost anti tv now.

I spend much more time online researching and learning things.

Even when my wife wants to watch a movie I can barely sit through most of them because I feel like I can be doing something better with my time.

I guess I must not be like most of America because product placements do nothing to inspire me to buy that product.
Click to expand...

I generally do both. I like the background noise of the tv.

Product placements/commercials obviously don't work immediately...they work on our memory.

If I see a commercial for Gorton's fried fish, I'm probably not going to get up right then and go out and pick up a pack of fried fish patties. But a couple weeks later when I'm at the supermarket and in the frozen fish section...if I see three brands...Gorton's, Store Brand, and some No-Name Brand, I am most likely going to go with the Gorton's.
 
I think a lot of it can be changed with how you're raised. If for instance, you are like me and grew up on store brand then you probably won't pay for the name brand unless it happens to be cheaper. OTH, commercials are good at letting you know what services/products are out there. If I think to myself that I need to book a hotel, I know of at least 3 places to check. Chances are the first one I go to is the last one I saw on TV or that I've seen most.
 
Don't know if it's mentioned but in It's Always Sunny in Philiadelphia they have SO MUCH placement for coors light it's ridiculous.
 
Erroneous said:
I think a lot of it can be changed with how you're raised. If for instance, you are like me and grew up on store brand then you probably won't pay for the name brand unless it happens to be cheaper. OTH, commercials are good at letting you know what services/products are out there. If I think to myself that I need to book a hotel, I know of at least 3 places to check. Chances are the first one I go to is the last one I saw on TV or that I've seen most.
Click to expand...

True. For me it depends on the product. Something generic like bottled water or computer printer paper...store brand is fine. But anything with flavor, or where quality determines my enjoyment of that product...I'll generally go brand-name.
 
Slightly OT but I notice this all the time with guns. "Forensics" show the bullet came from a .40 Glock yet in the shot scene it was a Beretta 92, etc. My other hobby is shooting so I always notice gun models.
 

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