By: Elizabeth Joyner
A couple of friends and I went to the World of Coke this afternoon and anyone who knows me knows that I love Coca-Cola. I had a great time tasting beverages from around the world and seeing tons of old advertisements for Coke. After we left I started thinking about product placement in television and how much of it there is. We watch television shows and movies every single day with products placed in them and they do have an influence on us. It’s much more subtle than a commercial and yet still so influential, even if we don’t realize it. Here are a few examples of product placement on television that we might not have picked up on but were very successful.
http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-some-of-tvs-best-product-placements-2012-3?op=1
Enjoying that Coke, Ross?
WFUmediaphiles 
I think it is interesting that we now barely even recognize product placement in tv shows any more. I wonder if there has been a rise in sales of these products or if they have plateaued because most people have become desensitized to product placement.
-Emily Elliott
I always have noticed this in the old I Love Lucy episodes I watch that I have on DVD- they leave the commercials in there. This may be simply because the technology at the time was too poor to cut it out, but I have noticed while re-watching them that I always know which products’ commercials are about to pop up in between scenes. It is especially funny because most of them are not even still available- they are products that were popular back in the 1950s, but are gone now.
I’ve always been intrigued by product placement on television, specifically in television shows (both sitcoms and reality shows). Product placement is an interesting form of advertisement for companies, such as Coca-Cola in this case, or in the case of House, the product placement by Apple. I’ve always thought that product placement was somewhat of a minor form of brainwashing, as the advertisers believe that viewers will watch the show and see their favorite television characters drinking a Coca-Cola or using an Apple computer and think “oh, he’s using that … must be cool.” But I agree with Emily, I think we’ve become so used to seeing this that we’re almost desensitized from it at this point, and I wonder if it ever leads to the intended boost in sales.
– Jake Moross
Excellent post and discussion thread emerging from the comments!