Product Placements Redux
As media evolves (or is redesigned, depending on your point of view) product placement will, too, evolve. For example, the advert pictured at left just happens to be pitching the product described in the article. This must have been an automated process like the Google targeted adverts on my blog because I'm sure the advertiser likely wouldn't have deliberately picked to sponsor a article that pans its product as this one does.
Well, product placement is evolving, too. But it does show up in the funniest places -- like the funnies:
Andy Capp is clearly reading The Mirror, an actual newspaper. This has been going on for a while, however, and it may be intended to clue slower readers into realizing that the strip is set in the United Kingdom. They have yet to mention Guinness beer, Rolls Royce, or Harrod's department store as far as I know of to date, but think of the possibilities.
Get Fuzzy has been featuring Tivo of late, going beyond using the logo ala Andy Capp as in the strip to the left to using the features as a springboard for the humor as in today's edition. The strip promotes a college, too - Lowe Tech. That's a fictional place, however, so I suppose it doesn't count.
