Random Culture

SeenOn.com: Products on TV

SeenOn.com is a new website launching November 15th that claims to be "the definitive source for products seen on screen." Visit the SeenOn.com blog right now to see products such as clothing, electronics, housewares and more from shows like Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and others.

Link via Fast Company.

Burger King Video Games

Seriously... Burger King is actually releasing three games created for the Xbox and Xbox360. You can read more about the effort in these articles at Game Informer and Gamespot. Here's a list of the three games, as well as a brief description for each:

Pocketbike Racer - Racing game pitting Burger King mascots against one another.

Big Bumpin - Bumper car game pitting Burger King mascots against one another.

Sneak King - The most entertaining of the bunch, it's an adaptation of the stealth action genre, but instead of sneaking up and snapping someone's neck, you give them the gift of food.

I'm actually impressed that the first two games are Xbox Live enabled. They may be simple in nature, but it's often the simplest games that are the most addictive. But my favorite part about this campaign is that Burger King isn't giving the games away... According to Game Informer:

"The Xbox and Xbox 360 games will be available from November 19 through December 24 for $3.99 with the purchase of a value meal."

This is classic CP+B, making advertising so good that consumers are willing to pay for it. They've used this before for Burger King, as well as in the "Counterfeit Mini" campaign, where consumers paid for an instructional DVD... and they sold out.

Yet another home run from CP+B and BK.

Thanks to Dave for the heads up!

The New Co-Branding

This is really interesting... John Deere is partnering with home developers in a marketing deal to co-brand suburban neighborhoods. According to this article on MSNBC, "As part of the partnership, the John Deere name will be featured on the entrance sign for the subdivision with homes ranging from roughly $375,000 to $500,000. The purchase price includes a choice of landscape designs prepared and installed by Deere. Thousands of dollars worth of riding lawnmowers, leaf-blowers and other equipment will fill one of the three garage bays."

What's next, a NASCAR neighborhood? ...don't think it won't happen.

Link via Agenda Inc.

Frog Marketing

Jamster, an online store for mobile content, is cashing in on the success of their ridiculous mascot, Axel F. He's a crazy frog whose latest "music video" and "single" have hit the top of the music charts in the UK. According to the Lycos 50 Blog, the frog "is so hot that it prevented Coldplay's new single from entering the number one spot on the UK singles chart." Seriously... check out the UK singles chart.

That's a serious accomplishment for Jamster...

If you'd like to subject yourself to an earworm for the rest of the day, visit the official Axel F site and watch the video.

Update: There's more... Another site that appears to be a new single remixing the one above. And if you hate the frog, this may be the game for you.

Product Placement Mayhem

This proves that nothing is sacred when it comes to product placement. A 30-second spot for an Arnold Schwarzenegger ballot initiative shows the California governor seated at a cafeteria table. According to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Prominently displayed on the table are bottles of Arrowhead water and Diet Pepsi. In the background are packages of Cheetos, Sun Chips and Ruffles, all Pepsi products."

What's even worse is that Schwarzenegger has been calling on the ban of junk food in schools, and surely most of these Pepsi products would qualify as junk food... Clearly a conflict of interest.

The Schwarzenegger camp says that the product placement was just a "coincidence."

Link via Agenda Inc.

Product Placement Frenzy!

This may be the first deal of its kind between a production company and an ad agency. Fox has signed a "first-look deal" with Crispin Porter and Bogusky. This means that Fox will have "a first look at concepts and properties CP+B develops that have potential as material for original scripted and unscripted series."

Hmm... this kinda takes CP+B down a notch in my book. While I understand it's good for business, it doesn't seem that great for TV. On a personal note, maybe it's just that I consider CP+B's work as "cool" and I don't have the same opinion about Fox. I mean, come on... couldn't they have struck a deal with MTV2 or something like that?

Check out the full story at The Business of Branded Entertainment.

Product Placement Fever

Wow... there's getting to be so much product placement now that you can easily spot them in the trailers. I came across the trailer for "The Man", a new movie with Samuel Jackson and Eugene Levy. In the trailer, I spotted at least 2 product placement deals... one for USA Today and another for Blockbuster. Check out the trailer for yourself.

The Blockbuster placement is weird, as there's a rental case in the trunk of a character's car... It's only there for a second, so you have to watch carefully. The USA Today product placement is pretty blatant, as you can see here.

Hmm... I wonder how many others I can spot in other trailers? Actually, I wonder if any of these companies stipulate inclusion in the trailer?

Advercontent: Match.com

Match.com has created an online dating and relationships "magazine" called Happen Magazine. Authors include notables as the folks who write the "Worst Case Scenario" series of books, as well as some Cosmo/Maxim alumnus, and one of the "Queer Eye" guys.

Hmm... I can't help feeling that this is a little weirder than those sections of the NY Times Magazine that "look" like articles, but aren't. Doesn't the fact that Match.com is publishing this undermine its credibility? I mean, would you trust a magazine about health that was published by Merck?

Amazon and "The OC"

Apparently Amazon is dipping its toes into product placement... but in a very subtle way, for their search engine, A9. On the show, According to the folks at SiliconBeat,  "one of the show's high school characters uses A9.com as a verb..."

That's right, the show said something akin to "I A9.com'd him"....

I'm not exactly a fan of the show, and if the usage above is any indication of quality... I won't be watching it anytime soon.

Update!: CNET has an article up on this very subject, and says Amazon "did not pay to have its name mentioned." Wow... then it must mean that the writing staff is even MORE out of touch than we previously thought.