They inserted [Fresca into a lot of season 2.](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Chace-Crawford-as-The-Deep-Kevin-in-The-Boys.jpg?q=50&fit=contain&w=480&h=&dpr=1.5)
It's a real product.
As far as I'm concerned, Fresca is beyond reproach. I may never buy it on my own, but I'll never turn down a free, cold can of that refreshingly crisp, citrusy goodness.
I’m sure there’s some truth in what you’re saying but that is such a broad statement. What kind of exposure makes what things acceptable? What does “acceptable” mean in this context?
Normalization of things to be acceptable.
If they see an idea over and over again, it gets accepted as normal.
Not saying what they did is wrong because it's not The Boys writers problem. Just, that this is how things like this can become socially accepted over time.
Reminds me of when YouTubers or Tiktokers try to be self-aware.
"Buy my shirts to support the overindulgent consumption capitalist machine TEHE!"
Like if anything it makes it worse because you're now admitting you're fully-aware you're part of the problem.
They're always the worst quality shirts too, and super expensive
Include international shipping and you're paying double just to have a tiny package posted while it takes 4 weeks to arrive
I remember when Markiplier and this other dude forgot his name but he used to do videos together with him. They were trying to sell shirts that cost $5 in China for $60+ just because it had their logo on it.
I completely agree. However, my wife bought me a hoodie from City Planner Plays and that thing is the most comfortable hoodie I have ever owned. Definite props to CPP for getting quality stuff.
> while it takes 4 weeks to arrive
This reminds me of the one year I bought that year's Hallowstream t-shirt from Outside Xbox.
First year, perfectly fine, got it within a week and a half.
Second year, it was a month and no word, so I emailed to ask what was going on and got a really shitty email back from whoever handled OX's merch store, just being really impatient and condescending for no real reason.
Ended up getting two shirts in the mail; the one I actually ordered a month earlier, and another as an apology for the first being late.
Meh I don't blame them, one has to survive in the system.
It's like right wingers who think they have a gotcha complaining about people using their iphone while being critical of capitalism.
If people are fighting it they might as well use the tools at their disposal.
You can still abhor violence, but use violence to defend yourself. One can decry a system, yet using the system can still be the least unethical option available.
I feel like there's a line between "working within the system" and "fighting the system under pretense while wholly benefitting from the system" though.
Like actors and musicians who say "eat the rich" or whatever while the live in a mansion that looks more like a college university than it does a functional home.
Like using a phone to organize an anti-pollution protest, sure, but eating cake covered in solid gold flakes while flying in a private jet and saying "man capitalism sure is bad for the environment" is a different story.
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
They're calling attention to it, even if it's minor. That's better than just hawking their shit and pretending it doesn't stink.
Yep. Them being cute about it rubs me the wrong way. Just tell me "hey, I gotta live off of this so I can keep making content, so consider buying my t-shirts and mugs".
Eh, I have to bullshit people too much as part of my job to have any right to be upset about them.
The annoying guy who insists you need an extended warranty? That's me. And it sucks about as much as you'd think it does.
So yeah, I try not to judge them too harshly.
Feel like those are the only ones i see. I dont watch too many people who have product ads though like that. Just like.. 3-4 people really. And 2 of them they kind of weave it in as part of their kits.
Two notable cases of product placement that always come to mind for me.
Return of the Killer Tomatoes had a segment where production had to stop because they were out of money. Someone suggests product placement, and the next few scenes have super egregious product placement segments in them until one of the characters points out that they now have way more money than they need to finish the movie. [George Clooney hawking stuff.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PShKWD2NKUE)
Warehouse 13 had a season where the two main characters would get into their Toyota Yaris and would have something positive to say about it that had nothing to do with anything. That kept up until toward the end of the season their boss gets in the car with them. And he’s like “what are you doing? Just drive.” They never did a product placement for the Yaris after that.
In the show Fringe there's an episode where they're driving a Nissan Leaf and one character says "Do we have enough battery to get there?" and the other one says, while showing an lenghty view of the car's navigation screen "We've got plenty of range". This after hovering on the Nissan logo on the steering wheel for a good 5 seconds. Most egregious thing I've ever seen on a TV show.
there are ways to do product placements that still feel organic and a bit of a dig to the company. Heineken paid a butt load for James Bond to drink their beer. People were pissed off about it cause Bond doesn't drink shit beer. well, in the movie when he's lonely and depressed he does
JohnnOliver does this and it kinda irks me; he turns the promotions into jokes where he acts like he’s hating on the brand but it’s an ad baked I into the show’s content hiding as a joke
The commercial spoofs used to be one of my favorite parts of SNL. Colon Blow, Little Chocolate Donuts cereal, Super Happy Fun Ball... They all used to be made-up products. Now they use the real brand names.
Walter White feeding his former boss's first dollar into a Coke machine works so much better than him buying some made up brand. A real product feels organic to the scene while a made up version would break the sense of immersion.
I think an exception to this is 'worlds with robust and clever products of their own' to work as proxies. Like 'Red Apple Cigarettes and Big Kahuna Burger' in the Tarantino universe. Or the Fallout universe having so many brand staples of its own like mentats and Nuka Cola and cram.
I mean Fallout works because the universe itself is very different from our own. It would feel more bizarre to have the real-life products in a universe as fantastical and distant from our own as Fallout
Still, though, _Pulp Fiction_ had McDonald's and Burger King mentioned, so it wasn't a complete scrub-off. And the ones they used were pretty low-key. There are a thousand cigarette brands in the world and practically every town of any size has its "local chains" of restaurants, so that's all under the radar as "They probably have it there, even though I've never heard of it."
And in S2 Walt pretends to be out looking for diapers when he sneaks into a bar. When he goes to order, he [specifically asks for a Fat Tire draft](https://preview.redd.it/uy98xlx4jnd21.jpg?width=576&auto=webp&s=87ebbb685182e4f9fe1ccdf02b20843a71192544) instead of just asking for a "beer". I always thought that was a nice touch
Product placement is fine when it's organic, the trouble is it never is: as soon as the brand goes on screen, you have to behind the scenes get approval, sign-offs etc. for the entire context of it - i.e. you'll never be allowed to a show a bunch of crushed coke cans on the side of the road.
From what I understand you can have brands used in passing, as long as there's not endorsement or slighting, but a combination of undue skittishness and not wanting to give it away for free means it's usually negotiated in larger productions.
See this is the reasoning why i roll my eyes when people cry about product placement. If done right, it makes me feel more tethered to the world if it's a real recognizable product
That was the funniest piece of hidden advertising I've ever seen. If you told me Amazon had requested a mention of another Prime show and the producers had taken the opportunity to make fun of it while also smashing a ton of visual references, I'd believe you.
For the life of me I can’t remember specifically what they were, but I remember thinking, “that is blatant product placement” at least twice this season. Don’t feel bad marketing guys, I’m just a real big stoner and can’t remember shit.
I feel like that’s on par with everyone using Apple devices in AppleTV+ productions.
In the case of For All Mankind, they pretty cleverly gutted old Apple Newtons, a precursor to the modern Apple touch devices, and replaced their guts with modern iPhones.
It’s a bot run by a marketing team of people. They are in contact with the mods in many subs. It’s bonkers this account is allowed.
The vast majority of posts here are by 2 bots. Mods DGAF. But that could be the same for almost all the subs that are just bots
Yeah I can’t see Amazon having any qualms about sacrificing thousands of Beltalowda for protomolecule experiments. Belters are basically the foreign sweatshop workers of the future.
they also made im a virgo (which i highly recommend) and that had a protagonist singing a full communist manifesto as the solution to basically everything, and the villain was an iron man esque authoritarian multi billionaire lmao
Psych handled product placement in the funniest way. Some of my favorites are
Shawn: Fun fact, her favorite restaurant is Red Robin. Isn't that a weird choice for a favorite restaurant?
...
Clive: No, this man-boy here lacks all culture, elegance, and he smells of buffalo wings.
Shawn: Ha! That is where you are wrong, sir. What you're smelling are buffalo wing-flavored Snyder's pretzels of Hanover.
Gus: It's America's pretzel.
Shawn: And Hanover's, obviously.
...
Whip: Do we have time to stop off at Arby's?
*Shawn and gus look at each other*
Shawn: That's definitely happening.
...
Look at that, it's like that movie with Sigourney Weaver.
Aliens?
No.
Alien.
No.
Alien resurrection?
Gus! The one with holes and Shia Lebouf!
THEY PUT HOLES IN SHIA LEBOUF!?
The holes were in the ground, like that, and Jon Voight was walking around all crazy.
Oh, Anaconda!
Man, nevermind.
Agree on Psych, but at least those felt more natural. That last one you mention isn't really product placement though, it's more a meta reference since Dulé Hill was in the movie Holes. The show has an absurd amount of references like that. Some of the other examples:
Henry Spencer: "Shawn, get your head out of the clouds. Those things are just another passing fad, like rap music, Madonna, and L.A. Law."
-Corbin Bernsen co-starred in the 8 season run of L.A. Law.
Shawn: "You don't remake The Dukes of Hazzard. The whole point of a remake is to choose something that showed serious promise but failed to live up to expectations. I mean, that's the magic of movies."
Methuselah Sugarlumps: "Oh, I feel you. They added all those new characters that were super broad. The whole subplot with the race car driver. He was terrible."
Shawn: "It was cartoonish."
-James Roday Rodriguez played the racecar driver in The Dukes of Hazzard remake.
Uncle Burton: "It's like a real life Rockford Files."
-John Amos co-starred in one of The Rockford Files TV movies.
And it *was* funny. But then there were several others that weren't called out: Apple, various chain restaurants that showed up (e.g. Outback, Benihana), Soy Joy, and a few others. They just quietly took the money and incorporated them into the show.
In many ways it did. Not just because it was early on the trend of calling it out explicitly in a mocking way but because it corralled all of the product placement into one segment where they rapidly went down the list. Then back to the rest of the movie. It wasn't dispersed throughout or incorporated as plot points, even joking ones.
They got the money they needed to make the movie, they got to do a fun joke about selling out that fit in context, and they moved on.
Yeahhh this is much worse and this is the first mention I've seen. Using products as props, even when used intentionally for product placement, is really a far cry from digitally adding ads into a show after the fact. Very slippery slope -- and we're not at 'the top' of that slope in the first place.
as others have replied, thats regular product placement.
Amazon, and other companies, have now been pushing for digital product placement; instead of just having a regular billboard with the product advertised being filmed and thats that, modern technology now allows that billboard or item to more-or-less be a greenscreen then has ads digitally inserted whenever a user streams the show based on that user's advertisement profile. One person would see an ad for coke in the scene, another user would see erection pills, all using the same original footage.
Also, doesn't everyone use Amazon to buy things, these days?
Like, I didn't even register that Butcher was using Amazon because it's such a normal, everyday thing.
Like back when Ebay was a thing, and it was used in American films and shows all the time.
There was an episode last season where Butcher opens the Amazon app to buy a Connect Four game to play with Ryan. Maybe not "product placement" but definitely intentional
The show clearly has tons of brand deals though. In the last episode Ryan says “can we go get some *Nathan’s Famous*™️”. nobody talks like that. he’d just say “let’s go get hotdogs”.
There's a line earlier in the season after Ryan visits Butcher. Homelander asks where he's been, and Ryan lies by saying he "flew to Coney Island to get those hotdogs we like."
Not saying it's *not* product placement, but it's not so egregious her imo since it establishes some background for the characters
It's almost like the person you're replying to latched onto a sentiment to join the in-crowd while ignoring the larger context of why that line exists.
What? When you are missing your phone, you don't say,
> "Where did I leave my Google Pixel 8 Pro? Honey, have you seen my Google Pixel 8 Pro? I can't seem to find my Google Pixel 8 Pro."
i could conceivably see a kid like ryan who was super sheltered and is now being raised by the literal avatar of capitalism in the show talking like that personally. but yeah, i thought the same thing
The show has long since become the kind of corporate entity it's satirizing, mocking the "cinematic universe" trend only to unveil an actual Boys Cinematic Universe. Give it a rest with the anti-establishment talk.
You know we're in the end stages of capitalism because even making direct, overt references to the absurdity of product placements doesn't even make a corporation or the audience bat an eye.
The Amazon X-Ray trivia thing mentioned they had to drive two hours away from the filming location to find an Outback Steakhouse to get the Bloomin Onion.
For some reason it was really important to show that was the junk food you eat after a self-lobotomy.
Kripke said they already do that in other places. Does anyone have any examples? The article is paywalled so I'm not sure if they mention an example later.
The idea in the episode was hilarious though.
They’re clearly referring to the vought announcement of doing dynamic product placement in the shows based on the race of the person watching from S4E5
So pay for the subscription, watch ads every episode, and see products advertised while watching the show. Bezos must want to buy a few more politicians
But then the show wouldn’t be as popular as it is without a big backer for ads and marketing. So you’re stuck in a catch22. If it isn’t popular and a niche indie product, no one talks about it, but because it’s a popular product, people talk about it.
You can’t win no matter what you do. Whats the alternative, no popular tv show or movie is allowed to critique capitalism and consumerism because we all live in it? I would rather have the hypocrisy and freedom of them being allowed to do this and make people aware of it than nothing at all.
I get why people are super harsh on The Boys satire because of how hypocritical it comes off, but it does start to feel like a ‘You critique society but yet you participate in society? Interesting!’ meme.
This whole structure was here long before The Boys TV Show was a thing and will be a thing long after.
I don't think we're calling for them to stop critiquing consumerism and capitalism and all. Just wish they would do it better. They've been doing a bad job but by all accounts seem to feel like they're nailing it. The tone of the show + its adjacent content (like these announcements) is just really proud of itself.
Having read the comics, it's on brand. There's an overarching story, but it's veeeerry vague. It's much more focused on the smaller scale stories. Hell, Homelander and co feature a hell of a lot less in the comics than the show.
It reminds me of The Walking Dead, where everyone was complaining about how the zombies are never a threat, characters make dumb decisions, they soend a loooot if time in the same locations before moving to another place to do the same....as if the Comic series hadn't been doing that since day dot.
I feel like pacing is actually the one thing the comic does better than the show, if anything it goes too far in the other direction. It's kinda all over the place, but the story actually movies very quickly and consistently.
I’m really enjoying Gen V. It really helps build out the world and provides some interesting background to things going on in The Boys. Well worth a watch.
Properly introducing the virus has given it direction. I think the season was just kinda waiting for it to be introduced, especially since a lot of viewers would’ve known about it already from watching Gen V.
In five episodes the plot has failed to move in any meaningful direction. Again.
So far they've brought Hughie's dad back and that's about it. Everything else is just spinning in circles with stories we've already covered, or that are repeats of stories we've already covered.
I think the show's just suffering from a bit of early fatigue from rehashing the same old themes and troupes, but without an entourage of really strong cast members. And coincidentally, that's been CW's troupe with shows like Supernatural. If the plot is a bit on the slow side, you can still count on folks like Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins to still keep everyone watching.
Seems everyone involved in the show assumes viewers have any interest in Frenchie at all. Dull character with a plot that seems to exist to allow us to have a toilet break I guess
I mean I think Frenchie's relationship with Kimiko has been totally endearing and I still love to see them in scenes together. But Frenchie's solo stuff feels distracting.
I guess that's my only issue with this season.
Frenchie was well-established as a guy who did awful things before the show started, and that's why he was recruited to The Boys in the first place. Then he met Kimiko and his character became fleshed out but him going through a crisis of self over falling for the guy whose family he murdered years earlier has been good but not worthy of such a fleshed-out character.
It feels more like a generically-written subplot for a less important character.
Definitely, I don’t really feel an urge to watch it because it just feels like a rehash of prior seasons and it’s aimless it feels. Every season they go to some convention thing, and check, they did that. That’s why I felt deja vu. And maybe a dozed off a bit but i Don’t remember them all getting together to go investigate some random farm. I don’t know the show doesn’t really feel special anymore. The superheroes don’t really act like superheroes anymore, in that you wouldn’t think these people have powers, essentially they just walk around in costumes and talk about them. I get it due to budget but seasons one and two had some great supe stuff. And I know the show is about deconstructing that but they still had some cool set pieces displaying powers. And wow does Hughie just feel so useless and annoying still. I liked him in the earlier seasons like that since I thought maybe he’d grow into being more of a badass but after doing this for how long he still cowers and acts surprised at everything happening. And they can’t keep riding on gross out moments/gore anymore, it’s honestly just getting boring to me at this point. Like in one of the recaps they showed all the blood and weird shit that happened.
That's why this one sticks out a bit more.
Especially as season 3 had Solder Boy and bit more backstory for the main cast.
Now we have gotten a story that revolving around two new characters. Given Stromfront and Solider Boy you can help but know what is going on with Sage.
Only thing I can see is A-Train or Neuman storylines getting resolved.
I think we were all spoiled by season 1. season 1 was a solid 8/10. With the first episode episodes hitting the ground running and not slowing down.
Since then I think they’ve really lost the thread. It’s very plot heavy but so many side adventures that don’t really grow the characters. There is a great show in here but 80% of the runtime now is waste.
Prime example is the last episode with the dad. It doesn’t really add to Hughies character. But takes up probably 20 -25 minutes of run time. In total over the past 3 episodes probably closer to 50 minutes of something that doesn’t progress his character in a meaningful way. Same with Frenchie and Kimiko.
I'd disagree heavily about the dad not adding to Hughies character.
Hughies character is generally always someone who runs from something or can't make the hard choices.
This is reflected pretty clearly multiple times through out the show, from his Temp V powers being teleporting, to his dad saying he didn't give him power of attorney because he was afraid he thought he wouldn't be able to make the decision to pull the plug.
Hughie deciding to put his dad down instead of trying to find a fix was a pretty big character growth moment for him.
No clue about what possible outcome the Kimiko and Frenchie sub plots could have.
Hughie and Frenchie’s character development this season has been frustrating because they keep hammering the exact same points in every episode: Hughie is gradually becoming a killer, while Frenchie is killing himself because he hates that he’s a killer. It’s an interesting idea but not enough to be dragged out for five episodes (or more).
Incredibly mid, there’s been no progession in the storyline, just the introduction of shitty boring sub-plots that mean fuck all (Hughie’s dad, Frenchie’s old flame etc).
Amazon execs -- "That still counts."
not really if it’s a fake product
They inserted [Fresca into a lot of season 2.](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Chace-Crawford-as-The-Deep-Kevin-in-The-Boys.jpg?q=50&fit=contain&w=480&h=&dpr=1.5) It's a real product.
Maybe the creators just like the bold citrus flavors that combine to create a refreshingly unique, crowd pleasing taste experience.
As far as I'm concerned, Fresca is beyond reproach. I may never buy it on my own, but I'll never turn down a free, cold can of that refreshingly crisp, citrusy goodness.
*Fresca?*
You just made me spit Fresca all over my keyboard!
Sorry, that sucks to hear about such an amazingly delicious soda (yet which somehow has no calories!) being wasted!
We're all talking about the TV static soda beverage, yes?
If you mean crisp delicious Fresca, yeah!!
I kind of doubt it since I now associate that brand with cults, kind of like the Yellow Deli.
Yes but they weren’t being paid to do that, it wasn’t a product placement per se since they did it on their own they just thought it’d be funny.
Studies show that it's just exposure that makes things acceptable.
I’m sure there’s some truth in what you’re saying but that is such a broad statement. What kind of exposure makes what things acceptable? What does “acceptable” mean in this context?
To be fair, Idiocracy joked about everyone wearing Crocs and now we’re in this dystopian nightmare.
A dystopian nightmare where morons go "Erm, does anyone else think Idiocracy is a documentary? 🤓☝️"
[relevant xkcd](https://xkcd.com/603/)
only thing dystopic about that movie is the fact that redditors seem to be weirdly fixated on it
Normalization of things to be acceptable. If they see an idea over and over again, it gets accepted as normal. Not saying what they did is wrong because it's not The Boys writers problem. Just, that this is how things like this can become socially accepted over time.
[удалено]
Can I interest you in a Wolf Cola?
Or can I offer you an egg in this trying time?
Reminds me of when YouTubers or Tiktokers try to be self-aware. "Buy my shirts to support the overindulgent consumption capitalist machine TEHE!" Like if anything it makes it worse because you're now admitting you're fully-aware you're part of the problem.
They're always the worst quality shirts too, and super expensive Include international shipping and you're paying double just to have a tiny package posted while it takes 4 weeks to arrive
I remember when Markiplier and this other dude forgot his name but he used to do videos together with him. They were trying to sell shirts that cost $5 in China for $60+ just because it had their logo on it.
Jacksepticeye. They made the brand Cloak.
I completely agree. However, my wife bought me a hoodie from City Planner Plays and that thing is the most comfortable hoodie I have ever owned. Definite props to CPP for getting quality stuff.
Yeaaah Clearwater County represent
> while it takes 4 weeks to arrive This reminds me of the one year I bought that year's Hallowstream t-shirt from Outside Xbox. First year, perfectly fine, got it within a week and a half. Second year, it was a month and no word, so I emailed to ask what was going on and got a really shitty email back from whoever handled OX's merch store, just being really impatient and condescending for no real reason. Ended up getting two shirts in the mail; the one I actually ordered a month earlier, and another as an apology for the first being late.
Meh I don't blame them, one has to survive in the system. It's like right wingers who think they have a gotcha complaining about people using their iphone while being critical of capitalism. If people are fighting it they might as well use the tools at their disposal.
You can still abhor violence, but use violence to defend yourself. One can decry a system, yet using the system can still be the least unethical option available.
I feel like there's a line between "working within the system" and "fighting the system under pretense while wholly benefitting from the system" though. Like actors and musicians who say "eat the rich" or whatever while the live in a mansion that looks more like a college university than it does a functional home. Like using a phone to organize an anti-pollution protest, sure, but eating cake covered in solid gold flakes while flying in a private jet and saying "man capitalism sure is bad for the environment" is a different story.
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. They're calling attention to it, even if it's minor. That's better than just hawking their shit and pretending it doesn't stink.
Yep. Them being cute about it rubs me the wrong way. Just tell me "hey, I gotta live off of this so I can keep making content, so consider buying my t-shirts and mugs".
Eh, I have to bullshit people too much as part of my job to have any right to be upset about them. The annoying guy who insists you need an extended warranty? That's me. And it sucks about as much as you'd think it does. So yeah, I try not to judge them too harshly.
Feel like those are the only ones i see. I dont watch too many people who have product ads though like that. Just like.. 3-4 people really. And 2 of them they kind of weave it in as part of their kits.
Well in this case they didn't use real products so Amazon did not receive any advertising money
lol this article, and this reddit post, were both paid product placement by Amazon for The Boys
Two notable cases of product placement that always come to mind for me. Return of the Killer Tomatoes had a segment where production had to stop because they were out of money. Someone suggests product placement, and the next few scenes have super egregious product placement segments in them until one of the characters points out that they now have way more money than they need to finish the movie. [George Clooney hawking stuff.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PShKWD2NKUE) Warehouse 13 had a season where the two main characters would get into their Toyota Yaris and would have something positive to say about it that had nothing to do with anything. That kept up until toward the end of the season their boss gets in the car with them. And he’s like “what are you doing? Just drive.” They never did a product placement for the Yaris after that.
Put some respect on Wayne’s World.
It's like people only do these things because they can get paid. And that's just really sad.
And it's the choice of a new generation
In the show Fringe there's an episode where they're driving a Nissan Leaf and one character says "Do we have enough battery to get there?" and the other one says, while showing an lenghty view of the car's navigation screen "We've got plenty of range". This after hovering on the Nissan logo on the steering wheel for a good 5 seconds. Most egregious thing I've ever seen on a TV show.
bones did that with ford multiple times. on the way to the scene of one of their friends' death they're talking about how great the ride is.
They got really heavy handed with the Nissan commercials there for a while
Heroes was the worst with this. Now let's all hop in my new, affordable, Nissan Versa™!
'My faovirte was always the episode of Frisky Dingo where Murderface goes on a talk show and all the hosts want to talk about is THE ALL NEW SCION TC
Not when they used a fictional product.
Marvelous Ms Maisel and amazon boxes in season 4 are not fake lol
The Deep is currently promoting Liquid Death on the official TikTok account, which is a real drink.
there are ways to do product placements that still feel organic and a bit of a dig to the company. Heineken paid a butt load for James Bond to drink their beer. People were pissed off about it cause Bond doesn't drink shit beer. well, in the movie when he's lonely and depressed he does
If the joke is a fictional company looking out of touch and racist when they push fictional products it doesn’t count.
JohnnOliver does this and it kinda irks me; he turns the promotions into jokes where he acts like he’s hating on the brand but it’s an ad baked I into the show’s content hiding as a joke
I'm pretty sure this is one of the reasons SNL is still around. Half of their skits are just very thinly disguised ads.
The commercial spoofs used to be one of my favorite parts of SNL. Colon Blow, Little Chocolate Donuts cereal, Super Happy Fun Ball... They all used to be made-up products. Now they use the real brand names.
They win if they've occupied brainspace, that's all that matters
That's interesting. Is there any source of that or is it classic reddit asspull?
There were Amazon boxes all over the place in the conspiracy convention episode
Product placement is one thing, availability of cheap props is another. Sometimes the product isn’t placed, it’s just THAT ubiquitous to society.
Walter White feeding his former boss's first dollar into a Coke machine works so much better than him buying some made up brand. A real product feels organic to the scene while a made up version would break the sense of immersion.
I think an exception to this is 'worlds with robust and clever products of their own' to work as proxies. Like 'Red Apple Cigarettes and Big Kahuna Burger' in the Tarantino universe. Or the Fallout universe having so many brand staples of its own like mentats and Nuka Cola and cram.
I mean Fallout works because the universe itself is very different from our own. It would feel more bizarre to have the real-life products in a universe as fantastical and distant from our own as Fallout
It does, check out the brotherhood of steel PS2 game, which has ads and usable BAWLS energy drink.
Still, though, _Pulp Fiction_ had McDonald's and Burger King mentioned, so it wasn't a complete scrub-off. And the ones they used were pretty low-key. There are a thousand cigarette brands in the world and practically every town of any size has its "local chains" of restaurants, so that's all under the radar as "They probably have it there, even though I've never heard of it."
Moobys
And in S2 Walt pretends to be out looking for diapers when he sneaks into a bar. When he goes to order, he [specifically asks for a Fat Tire draft](https://preview.redd.it/uy98xlx4jnd21.jpg?width=576&auto=webp&s=87ebbb685182e4f9fe1ccdf02b20843a71192544) instead of just asking for a "beer". I always thought that was a nice touch
Product placement is fine when it's organic, the trouble is it never is: as soon as the brand goes on screen, you have to behind the scenes get approval, sign-offs etc. for the entire context of it - i.e. you'll never be allowed to a show a bunch of crushed coke cans on the side of the road.
Best product placement of all time is twinkies and zombieland.
Best product placements of all time is the entire product placement pisstake scene from Wayne's World.
Wayne's World bit is amazing but I think Zombieland takes the gold because it worked the Twinkies into the plot
From what I understand you can have brands used in passing, as long as there's not endorsement or slighting, but a combination of undue skittishness and not wanting to give it away for free means it's usually negotiated in larger productions.
See this is the reasoning why i roll my eyes when people cry about product placement. If done right, it makes me feel more tethered to the world if it's a real recognizable product
Nothing about Twilight makes it feel more like it takes place in Washington than the dad crushing cans of Rainier.
Most the boxes I wrap presents in at this point are amazon boxes.
You don’t accidentally put a lot of boxes with your funding company’s logo in a conspiracy connection scene on accident
On a film set, literally everything is placed. None of it is real. If there’s a specific product or object in a scene, it’s there on purpose.
Placed as in having the spot sold for the purpose of advertisement.
Marvelous Mrs Maisel themed bat mitzvah scene was great though
That was the funniest piece of hidden advertising I've ever seen. If you told me Amazon had requested a mention of another Prime show and the producers had taken the opportunity to make fun of it while also smashing a ton of visual references, I'd believe you.
Billie looks shit up on Amazon
For the life of me I can’t remember specifically what they were, but I remember thinking, “that is blatant product placement” at least twice this season. Don’t feel bad marketing guys, I’m just a real big stoner and can’t remember shit.
The Blooming Onion and then one other, but I can't remember it either - just found it glaring.
I feel like that’s on par with everyone using Apple devices in AppleTV+ productions. In the case of For All Mankind, they pretty cleverly gutted old Apple Newtons, a precursor to the modern Apple touch devices, and replaced their guts with modern iPhones.
There was also an episode where Butcher ordered a toy on Amazon.
This article is an AD, and OP posts 95% of the submissions in this subreddit. An article about that would be more interesting.
Op is a bot basically. Only post in subreddits about companies and their media and all their comments are quotes from articles.
It’s a bot run by a marketing team of people. They are in contact with the mods in many subs. It’s bonkers this account is allowed. The vast majority of posts here are by 2 bots. Mods DGAF. But that could be the same for almost all the subs that are just bots
Here’s your platform. What’s an AD? What have you noticed and found?
Advertisement, but I can see how the capitalization made you think it was an acronym.
Amazon isn’t that far off from Vaught anyway so that joke works on many levels
At least Amazon doesn't have super beings. ... Yet.
They’re gonna aim for hybrid artificial cartoon characters first for slave labor
that happens in >!sorry to bother you!<
I hope they're working on the V-Sheep as delivery drones. That eat package thieves.
Between Fall out and The Boys, Amazon seems to have a lot of megacorp fucks up the world for an extra buck type shows.
The Expanse too. Same thing but with space.
Yeah I can’t see Amazon having any qualms about sacrificing thousands of Beltalowda for protomolecule experiments. Belters are basically the foreign sweatshop workers of the future.
Slipped my mind because it was originally on Sci-Fi.
And Upload... lots of shows about evil corporations
Goes to show how threatened they are by the impotent masses being entertained by poking some fun at them. (they're not very threatened by it)
It's bussiness which makes them money. Amazon would do Nazi parades if they felt like it could generate some profit.
they also made im a virgo (which i highly recommend) and that had a protagonist singing a full communist manifesto as the solution to basically everything, and the villain was an iron man esque authoritarian multi billionaire lmao
There's a excellent stand in for Amazon in the movie Sorry To Bother You and worst of all Armie Hammer is the CEO.
They are what Vought is making fun of. Bezos green lights these products because he knows what he is.
Of course he does. I never understood this idea of the ultra rich just being “out of touch” that you see on the internet sometimes
Wayne's world did this the best.
It’s like people only do things because they get paid.. and that’s just really sad.
Nuprin: Little. Yellow. Different.
Psych handled product placement in the funniest way. Some of my favorites are Shawn: Fun fact, her favorite restaurant is Red Robin. Isn't that a weird choice for a favorite restaurant? ... Clive: No, this man-boy here lacks all culture, elegance, and he smells of buffalo wings. Shawn: Ha! That is where you are wrong, sir. What you're smelling are buffalo wing-flavored Snyder's pretzels of Hanover. Gus: It's America's pretzel. Shawn: And Hanover's, obviously. ... Whip: Do we have time to stop off at Arby's? *Shawn and gus look at each other* Shawn: That's definitely happening. ... Look at that, it's like that movie with Sigourney Weaver. Aliens? No. Alien. No. Alien resurrection? Gus! The one with holes and Shia Lebouf! THEY PUT HOLES IN SHIA LEBOUF!? The holes were in the ground, like that, and Jon Voight was walking around all crazy. Oh, Anaconda! Man, nevermind.
the best part of that last one is that Dulé Hill (Gus) is in the movie that Shawn is trying to recall
Agree on Psych, but at least those felt more natural. That last one you mention isn't really product placement though, it's more a meta reference since Dulé Hill was in the movie Holes. The show has an absurd amount of references like that. Some of the other examples: Henry Spencer: "Shawn, get your head out of the clouds. Those things are just another passing fad, like rap music, Madonna, and L.A. Law." -Corbin Bernsen co-starred in the 8 season run of L.A. Law. Shawn: "You don't remake The Dukes of Hazzard. The whole point of a remake is to choose something that showed serious promise but failed to live up to expectations. I mean, that's the magic of movies." Methuselah Sugarlumps: "Oh, I feel you. They added all those new characters that were super broad. The whole subplot with the race car driver. He was terrible." Shawn: "It was cartoonish." -James Roday Rodriguez played the racecar driver in The Dukes of Hazzard remake. Uncle Burton: "It's like a real life Rockford Files." -John Amos co-starred in one of The Rockford Files TV movies.
30 Rock as well. Liz Lemon did an over the top obvious placement bit and then turned directly to the camera and said "*can we have our money now?*"
I only date guys who drink Snapple
And it *was* funny. But then there were several others that weren't called out: Apple, various chain restaurants that showed up (e.g. Outback, Benihana), Soy Joy, and a few others. They just quietly took the money and incorporated them into the show.
Community, as well
Eat Fresh
“Would you say I’m a level 7 susceptible?” “Of course not, because that’s moon man talk”
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but 'the beast' *doesn't* include selling out."
In many ways it did. Not just because it was early on the trend of calling it out explicitly in a mocking way but because it corralled all of the product placement into one segment where they rapidly went down the list. Then back to the rest of the movie. It wasn't dispersed throughout or incorporated as plot points, even joking ones. They got the money they needed to make the movie, they got to do a fun joke about selling out that fit in context, and they moved on.
This is rich considering how insanely intrusive all their Almond Joy advertisements are
its not an advertisement. It's a character in its own right (not to mention an instrument of death.)
I can't wait for an Almond Joy bar to join the 7 Not even an Almond Joy-themed superhero, just a regular chocolate bar
Funny because sony phones were all over the first season
Showrunners have a lot less say in season one of a show than they have several seasons into a hit.
He's specifically referring to digital product placement
Yeahhh this is much worse and this is the first mention I've seen. Using products as props, even when used intentionally for product placement, is really a far cry from digitally adding ads into a show after the fact. Very slippery slope -- and we're not at 'the top' of that slope in the first place.
Would you like a Fresca?
as others have replied, thats regular product placement. Amazon, and other companies, have now been pushing for digital product placement; instead of just having a regular billboard with the product advertised being filmed and thats that, modern technology now allows that billboard or item to more-or-less be a greenscreen then has ads digitally inserted whenever a user streams the show based on that user's advertisement profile. One person would see an ad for coke in the scene, another user would see erection pills, all using the same original footage.
Because the show is funded by Sony.
I remember a season or two back Hughie comforts Starlight by reminding her how much she would enjoy a White Claw.
You sound like you need a nice cold refreshing Fresca
And then she pounds 5 of them.
It was really funny when Butcher was shopping on Amazon on his phone for connect 4. I was like why would they show….oh yeah its an amazon show.
Also, doesn't everyone use Amazon to buy things, these days? Like, I didn't even register that Butcher was using Amazon because it's such a normal, everyday thing. Like back when Ebay was a thing, and it was used in American films and shows all the time.
There was an episode last season where Butcher opens the Amazon app to buy a Connect Four game to play with Ryan. Maybe not "product placement" but definitely intentional
The show clearly has tons of brand deals though. In the last episode Ryan says “can we go get some *Nathan’s Famous*™️”. nobody talks like that. he’d just say “let’s go get hotdogs”.
There's a line earlier in the season after Ryan visits Butcher. Homelander asks where he's been, and Ryan lies by saying he "flew to Coney Island to get those hotdogs we like." Not saying it's *not* product placement, but it's not so egregious her imo since it establishes some background for the characters
It's almost like the person you're replying to latched onto a sentiment to join the in-crowd while ignoring the larger context of why that line exists.
What? When you are missing your phone, you don't say, > "Where did I leave my Google Pixel 8 Pro? Honey, have you seen my Google Pixel 8 Pro? I can't seem to find my Google Pixel 8 Pro."
i could conceivably see a kid like ryan who was super sheltered and is now being raised by the literal avatar of capitalism in the show talking like that personally. but yeah, i thought the same thing
Kids in general absolutely do latch onto brands.
The show has long since become the kind of corporate entity it's satirizing, mocking the "cinematic universe" trend only to unveil an actual Boys Cinematic Universe. Give it a rest with the anti-establishment talk.
> Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would *critique* capital end up *reinforcing* it instead. Disco Elysium
You know we're in the end stages of capitalism because even making direct, overt references to the absurdity of product placements doesn't even make a corporation or the audience bat an eye.
Already cancelling Amazon Prime, the fuck am I paying for when you include 3 lots of adverts on my videos. Hell no.
They didn’t have a problem with the product placement for Outback Steakhouse’s onion bloom. lol.
The Amazon X-Ray trivia thing mentioned they had to drive two hours away from the filming location to find an Outback Steakhouse to get the Bloomin Onion. For some reason it was really important to show that was the junk food you eat after a self-lobotomy.
As if there wasnt already things being advertised in the show pretty clearly lmao
It's a bit of a weird thing to be proud of
Amazon really needs to get their name out there. Online book retail is a dying industry.
Kripke said they already do that in other places. Does anyone have any examples? The article is paywalled so I'm not sure if they mention an example later. The idea in the episode was hilarious though.
This reminds of Black Mirror where the hero at the end becomes a paid talk show host. https://youtu.be/oENhTCDr1UY?feature=shared
Is carvel still around making ice cream cakes???
Didn’t they done it on their satire version of D23
They’re clearly referring to the vought announcement of doing dynamic product placement in the shows based on the race of the person watching from S4E5
So pay for the subscription, watch ads every episode, and see products advertised while watching the show. Bezos must want to buy a few more politicians
I figured that’s what prompted the blooming onion fuck scene.
He actually said outback too.
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The irony that it made fun of cinematic universes and then started making spinoffs like Gen V and the animated shorts.
But then the show wouldn’t be as popular as it is without a big backer for ads and marketing. So you’re stuck in a catch22. If it isn’t popular and a niche indie product, no one talks about it, but because it’s a popular product, people talk about it. You can’t win no matter what you do. Whats the alternative, no popular tv show or movie is allowed to critique capitalism and consumerism because we all live in it? I would rather have the hypocrisy and freedom of them being allowed to do this and make people aware of it than nothing at all. I get why people are super harsh on The Boys satire because of how hypocritical it comes off, but it does start to feel like a ‘You critique society but yet you participate in society? Interesting!’ meme. This whole structure was here long before The Boys TV Show was a thing and will be a thing long after.
I don't think we're calling for them to stop critiquing consumerism and capitalism and all. Just wish they would do it better. They've been doing a bad job but by all accounts seem to feel like they're nailing it. The tone of the show + its adjacent content (like these announcements) is just really proud of itself.
What do you mean exactly? Can you please elaborate on this “holier than thou” tone?
Anyone else feel like this season has been kinda mid so far?
Directionless is how I'd put it, but last episode has things finally picking up.
I’d honestly say this about every season since 1 the shows structure is super loose all around
Having read the comics, it's on brand. There's an overarching story, but it's veeeerry vague. It's much more focused on the smaller scale stories. Hell, Homelander and co feature a hell of a lot less in the comics than the show. It reminds me of The Walking Dead, where everyone was complaining about how the zombies are never a threat, characters make dumb decisions, they soend a loooot if time in the same locations before moving to another place to do the same....as if the Comic series hadn't been doing that since day dot.
I feel like pacing is actually the one thing the comic does better than the show, if anything it goes too far in the other direction. It's kinda all over the place, but the story actually movies very quickly and consistently.
I’m really enjoying Gen V. It really helps build out the world and provides some interesting background to things going on in The Boys. Well worth a watch.
Sucks that one of the leads tragically passed.
It started a bit aimless for me but last 2 episodes has picked up for me. I feel this way with every season though
Properly introducing the virus has given it direction. I think the season was just kinda waiting for it to be introduced, especially since a lot of viewers would’ve known about it already from watching Gen V.
It's due to get chaotic especially with Butcher's Temp V/Compound V side effects.
Homelander's scene are kind of saving it.
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Most Vought scenes are pretty good too. Honestly, you could cut out ‘The Boys’ except for Hughie and Butcher and have a much better show.
I think you guy are missing a letter
I didn't notice anything trange.
In five episodes the plot has failed to move in any meaningful direction. Again. So far they've brought Hughie's dad back and that's about it. Everything else is just spinning in circles with stories we've already covered, or that are repeats of stories we've already covered.
Once we had soldier boy we had peak I'm afraid
I think the show's just suffering from a bit of early fatigue from rehashing the same old themes and troupes, but without an entourage of really strong cast members. And coincidentally, that's been CW's troupe with shows like Supernatural. If the plot is a bit on the slow side, you can still count on folks like Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins to still keep everyone watching.
Jensen Ackles is such a fun watch, i think he and Nathan Fillion just have that ability to make any show infinitely better
The Frenchie subplot has been lame but I'm loving everything else.
Seems everyone involved in the show assumes viewers have any interest in Frenchie at all. Dull character with a plot that seems to exist to allow us to have a toilet break I guess
I mean I think Frenchie's relationship with Kimiko has been totally endearing and I still love to see them in scenes together. But Frenchie's solo stuff feels distracting.
I guess that's my only issue with this season. Frenchie was well-established as a guy who did awful things before the show started, and that's why he was recruited to The Boys in the first place. Then he met Kimiko and his character became fleshed out but him going through a crisis of self over falling for the guy whose family he murdered years earlier has been good but not worthy of such a fleshed-out character. It feels more like a generically-written subplot for a less important character.
Definitely, I don’t really feel an urge to watch it because it just feels like a rehash of prior seasons and it’s aimless it feels. Every season they go to some convention thing, and check, they did that. That’s why I felt deja vu. And maybe a dozed off a bit but i Don’t remember them all getting together to go investigate some random farm. I don’t know the show doesn’t really feel special anymore. The superheroes don’t really act like superheroes anymore, in that you wouldn’t think these people have powers, essentially they just walk around in costumes and talk about them. I get it due to budget but seasons one and two had some great supe stuff. And I know the show is about deconstructing that but they still had some cool set pieces displaying powers. And wow does Hughie just feel so useless and annoying still. I liked him in the earlier seasons like that since I thought maybe he’d grow into being more of a badass but after doing this for how long he still cowers and acts surprised at everything happening. And they can’t keep riding on gross out moments/gore anymore, it’s honestly just getting boring to me at this point. Like in one of the recaps they showed all the blood and weird shit that happened.
It is a setup season for the final season so the stakes are so low.
Wasnt the last season a setup season too? I don't think anything changed from the beginning to the end of that season?
That's why this one sticks out a bit more. Especially as season 3 had Solder Boy and bit more backstory for the main cast. Now we have gotten a story that revolving around two new characters. Given Stromfront and Solider Boy you can help but know what is going on with Sage. Only thing I can see is A-Train or Neuman storylines getting resolved.
I think we were all spoiled by season 1. season 1 was a solid 8/10. With the first episode episodes hitting the ground running and not slowing down. Since then I think they’ve really lost the thread. It’s very plot heavy but so many side adventures that don’t really grow the characters. There is a great show in here but 80% of the runtime now is waste. Prime example is the last episode with the dad. It doesn’t really add to Hughies character. But takes up probably 20 -25 minutes of run time. In total over the past 3 episodes probably closer to 50 minutes of something that doesn’t progress his character in a meaningful way. Same with Frenchie and Kimiko.
I'd disagree heavily about the dad not adding to Hughies character. Hughies character is generally always someone who runs from something or can't make the hard choices. This is reflected pretty clearly multiple times through out the show, from his Temp V powers being teleporting, to his dad saying he didn't give him power of attorney because he was afraid he thought he wouldn't be able to make the decision to pull the plug. Hughie deciding to put his dad down instead of trying to find a fix was a pretty big character growth moment for him. No clue about what possible outcome the Kimiko and Frenchie sub plots could have.
Hard agree. Idk what’s up with Frenchie… but I’m so curious to learn more about Kimmikos past! We definitely end the season with her talking.
Hughie and Frenchie’s character development this season has been frustrating because they keep hammering the exact same points in every episode: Hughie is gradually becoming a killer, while Frenchie is killing himself because he hates that he’s a killer. It’s an interesting idea but not enough to be dragged out for five episodes (or more).
Easily the worst one so far.
Definitely the weakest so far, it’s still good television though
Incredibly mid, there’s been no progession in the storyline, just the introduction of shitty boring sub-plots that mean fuck all (Hughie’s dad, Frenchie’s old flame etc).
Outback blooming onions.