This has been a post that I’ve wanted to do for quite some time — well, not this specific post, but recurring posts about the (not so) subtle product placement on television shows each week. The first of which started more than a year ago when Zunited reported about Bing being on The Vampire Diaries. Besides, it also combines two of my favorite loves: tech and TV. (And by all means, if you know of any recent product placement too hard to ignore, write it below. And before you read: if you’re not up to date with the TV shows listed do not read because spoiler alert… nothing major, just if you don’t like even a minor spoiler, stay away.) Both of the below episodes aired on Monday, May 2nd, at 10pm on ABC and 9pm on The CW E/PT, respectively.
Windows Phone 7 on Castle
Waiter-slash: Actress. Violet Young's a starving artist. In trouble.
The setup:
In the latest episode of Castle, “To Love and Die In L.A.,” a murder close to Beckett’s heart sends Castle and her from New York to Tinseltown — where everyone is a starving artist and a waiter-slash-something. The duo finds that their victim, murdered on the other side of the country, has been living out of Gene Simmons’ (yes that Gene Simmons) guesthouse and was born anew trying to help those in need (emotionally). His most recent beneficiary was “a girl… very beautiful, stunning” who “dropped off a headshot.” Turns out that headshot belongs to fictional “smokin’ hot,” as quoted by Castle, actress Violet Young, whose only movie role is (what we hope isn’t fictional) Slumber Party Zombie.
Where the product placement comes in:
Castle gears up his handy dandy Windows Phone 7 device, looks like a Samsung Focus if you asked us, to queue up Slumber Party Zombie on Netflix.
And we really can’t blame the guy. But, as you may or may not know, since there can only be a maximum of two live tiles per row and seven or eight show up without scrolling: either this happens to Castle a lot (meaning he learns about beautiful women in movies) or he’s just a really big Netflix junkie. Even I have my Netflix app at the very last page of my iPhone. The shot of the phone goes on for about two to three seconds; Castle presses on the app and the little door transition takes place finally allowing the red background and Netflix logo to take up the entire screen. But seriously, Castle, check your texts, buddy! Clear the email inbox, while you’re at it.
How subtle, or not so subtle, is it?
I suppose I can’t really give it a grade but can describe it as a viewer. Since the plot involved an actress who was, in what I’m assuming from the title, in a Grade… Z film — and since Netflix is ridden with terrible movies like that — it actually seems quite natural to use the Netflix gag in this situation. It also helps that the dialogue was more about queueing something up on Netflix rather than the use of the actual phone, in fact no where was the phone actually mentioned. Though, you get the sense that the same thing could have been done without showing the close up shot of the phone. And thus, subtlety is lost. But hey, it looks cool. (Will people know what it is without them explicitly saying it’s WP7? Or perhaps Nathan Fillion actually uses a Samsung Focus! Yeah, probably not. This photo and the fact that he’s always tweeting from Twitter for iPhone says otherwise. Also, it’s apparently 12:34pm in Castle time.) And the fact that they have a picture of the fictional Castle family helps.
Bing on Gossip Girl
The setup:
Dan recently kissed his ex-girlfriend Serena’s best friend (soon to be ex-best friend, actually) and found out that he has feelings for her. But the best friend, Blair, doesn’t have feelings for him, only for her ex-boyfriend and true love, Chuck, but regardless is now going out with some prince from France she met the previous summer when she vacated in Paris. It’s all very lifelike. Because of all of this, Dan isn’t exactly in the place to get into a relationship at the moment. Enter Charlie, Serena’s cousin who comes from the countryside of Florida and has never played the Upper East Side game. Regardless of how hot Carlie is and how much she wants to hook up with Dan (and how much of a “spaz in a good way” she is), he’s still not into it. He starts to suspect she has feelings for him when she kisses him on the cheek. Perhaps it’s because I’m Hispanic, but that’s not actually an indication of anything… especially not in Miami. It’s a way people say goodbye, but whatever, she actually is into him as I mentioned. So when he comes, in the latest episode “The Princess and the Frog,” over to her aunt’s house (where she’s staying while she visits New York) and she’s looking for a good place that sells pierogies, which are like Polish empanadas or turnovers or dumplings that he’s “always talking about,” he begins to think she’s driving this crush into full throttle.
Where the product placement comes in:
When she googles—ahem—searches for a place that sells these dumpling things, she actually uses Bing, on Windows 7, while using Internet Explorer (what frankly looks like IE 7) that also has a Bing Bar on it, to find a bakery that sells these things.
How subtle, or not subtle, is it?
Ahem: I said I got it on Bing. BING. DID YOU HEAR? BING!
If I could give grades out, it would be much lower on the scale (but would get an A++ on the blunt scale!). Not only does Bing show up for two seconds with the shot above, but the whole beginning of the scene is somewhat focused on what she finds on the computer. And whenever a shot is thrown back to Charlie, what’s on the computer is still in plain view. And she absolutely addresses it by saying: “What are you doing today? Because I was thinking about trying those pierogies that you’re always talking about. And according… to Bing… there’s a really great place in Queens.” You think those ellipses are just there to emphasize to you? No. She actually says it like that. Sadly, we wouldn’t find it that blunt if she were using Google, now would we?
And don’t think we didn’t notice the “only-exists-in-fiction”ally branded Microsoft laptop that she used, either. Besides, the first screenshot showed it was a Lenovo. I mean, really!
