Julie Bosman’s piece today in The New York Times, "A Match Made in Product Placement Heaven," is the latest — and certainly not the last — examination of this media "issue." As one who grew up in the golden age of radio and early 1950’s television, the phenomena of product placement is both amusing and nostalgic.
So I wonder what the big deal is when the Times observes that "in first episode of Lovespring International, a new comedy on the Lifetime channel about a dysfunctional dating service in Southern California, the owner of the agency storms into an office, furious at two employees. ‘Do you know how many people have signed up for Perfectmatch.com in the last five minutes?’ she barks. ‘1,623′."
In the days of radio and early broadcast television, sponsors were closely identified with their shows and the characters in them. Today when Tivo (http://www.tivo.com/1.0.chart.asp) equipped consumers can slide past the commercial, what better way is there to garner recognition and awareness
than to make the brand part of the action?
How else could Jack Benny segue seamlessly from his skit with Mary Livingston, Rochester or Dennis Day to "L.S./M.F. T." (Lucky Strike means fine tobacco) with his announcer and cast member Don Wilson sliding 
into the pitch for the American Tobacco Company brand? I seem to recall the same with Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater every Tuesday night. "Each show opened with four Texaco Service Men, singing the Texaco jingle and then working into a musical introduction of Berle, who came on dressed in some outlandish costume." (http://www.timvp.com/miltonb.html)
After all, product placement is what PR has long been about. Mostly for free — for placement anyway.
