Hacker News Reader

Comment by draugadrotten | Hacker News Reader

If you believe you are not watching ads when you watch Netflix, you need to look into the product placement in their shows. Drinks, watches, cars, clothes, all brands and even quite a few locations... it is all paid for, to entice you to buy.

View on HN

I was about to suggest that this would be hard in fantasy shows, like Game of Thrones. But on review, there's not much of that on Netflix. It's all contemporary. Interesting...

https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/best-netflix-...

Product placement and ads both serve the purpose of promoting something, but they're not really the same thing at all. I mean, both cars and bikes serve the purpose of transportation, but I don't think many people would argue that driving a car is basically riding a bike.

The line gets fuzzy when scenes are added to the show purely for product placement. In my mind that's an ad.

I do not recommend watching Transformers (the movies) for you.

The last (and final) one I watched (just to see how bad it was) had a 30 second (I am not shitting you) beer commercial complete with the signature Michael Bay 360 degree shot.

And not to mention the Chinese - "we must call central government" - pandering.

I saw the Age of Extinction, and it was probably the worst movie I've watched all the way through. It was just astonishingly bad, and the blatant product placement made it even worse.

Sure, and it makes me squirm a bit, but I can’t stop PP. even better reduces how much time I spend thinking critically about how I’m being manipulated, which is just a relief.

Except for product placement, and I suppose billboards, I just don’t see ads anymore. I don’t hear them in my music, they only exist as product placement in my television and movies, I don’t see them online. I’ll take that reduction any day, and just accept the total elimination is unlikely.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com