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Comment by jsz0 | Hacker News Reader

Has product placement / in-show commercials become this obvious on TV? If so have they cut back on the regular commercials at all? Not saying it's a bad thing per say I'm just curious. I think it definitely captures the early adopter experience nicely. Better than seeing some generic 30 second spot in heavy rotation.

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I was expecting some product placement à la "24" (or many others, "24" just came to mind first) where the products are used like they were designed to be used, but it just happens to be this or that brand. The focus is not really on the product. Kind of subliminal in a way.

But this looked more like a commercial than anything else. I don't mind when Apple pays production companies to have someone use a MacBook rather than a Dell, I do when they make sure the characters praise the product.

I think you're reading too much into it. Certainly Apple may have offered ABC some amount of money for the product placement but the important question is has this specific example taken away from the entertainment factor of the show? If you follow 'Modern Family' this is certainly is consistent with the portrayal of a father. Would it have made you happier if instead he was obsessing over an unfamiliar technology product that you've never heard of? Would you have been able to relate to it as much?

So I say, "who cares," as long as product placement is not impacting me from being entertained and/or compromising the artistic merit of the show.

A similar thing was done on SciFi Channels Eureka a while back where the storyline involve a brand of deodorant. It fitted in well with the storyline and wasn't annoying or overly blatant. I'm fine with shows doing thing kind of thing when they don't break the forth wall while doing it. As long as they don't go over board cough Die Another Day cough

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