In honor of Oreo's 100th birthday, the cookie will guest star on tonight's episode of Modern Family, reports AdAge. The staff of the ABC hit sitcom has written a scene that involves Luke Dunphy eating the cookie in an unusually interesting way.
From Seinfeld to The Office, here are some of TV's best product integrations>>
Oreo began talking to ABC about this placement last spring. (The brand has also been running a series of promos that feature the Modern Family characters celebrating their inner child, which is the theme of Oreo's birthday campaign).
"We chose to partner with the program because it brings to life fun moments of family connection in a humorous and entertaining way," said Kraft spokesman, Basil T. Maglaris, to AdAge.
Co-creator Steven Levitan told AdAge in a January interview that the show turns down 90 percent of product placement requests. This season the show has already incorporated Toyota, Audi, and Target into episodes despite trying to limit deals like these to one to three a season.
Of course, product placement in television is nothing new. In the early days of radio and television, shows were often underwritten by companies like Proctor & Gamble; this is also why they were called soap operas.
Brands realized early on that they could benefit from their products being integrated into plot lines and associated with popular shows; production companies understood that these deals meant both equating themselves with valuable brands and, in most cases, money.
Today, as advertisers worry about fragmented audiences and the DVR making their commercials obsolete, more brands are trying to broker deals with popular shows.
The Love Boat: Princess Cruises
The Love Boat was set aboard the Pacific Princess, part of the Princess Cruise Lines. Although the show ran from 1977 to 1986, this product placement was so valuable that until 2002 the cruise line was still using the slogan, "It's more than a cruise, it's the Love Boat.".
Knight Rider: Pontiac Trans Am
Taking product placement to another level, Knight Rider starred David Hasselhoff and his talking Pontiac Trans Am, KITT. General Motors gave the show's makers models of the then-new 1982 Trans Am, which was decked out as KITT. With that one show, the Trans Am became one of the most desirable cars of the early 1980s.
Seinfeld: Junior Mints
“Who’s gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It’s chocolate, it’s peppermint, it’s delicious!”
Seinfeld was turned down by M&Ms and Lifesavers before Junior Mint agreed to let their product be featured in an episode where it would be dropped into the open chest cavity of a patient during surgery.
The show was not paid by Tootsie Roll (Junior Mints’ parent company) for the placement.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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