For my
sitcom blog, I chose The Office. I chose this for a number of reasons; one of
them being that this show takes place in Scranton which is fairly close to home
The episode I viewed was from season five and it was called “weight loss: part
1”. This was one of the first times I’ve watched a show to take note on product
placement and I will say I am very surprised how many name brands were shown
throughout the show.
Before
we get started going over the items shown throughout this episode let’s
summarize it up. The gang at Dunder Mifflin is trying to lose weight because whichever
branch of the paper company loses the most weight gets three extra vacation days.
Also Pam leaves Dunder Mifflin to take college classes in New York City. Normally
while watching this show I am laughing out loud but while watching it today I
took notes. I did manage to slip in a few giggles here and there, however.
The
first product shown in plain site was an IPod and an IPod dock. This is only
shown at a glance from far away during a yoga class. This made me think whether
it was product placement or not because although they only show it from far
away Apple is such a big name brand that only a small amount of time is needed
to promote their product. Later on in the episode there is definitely
confirmation that this IPod was product placement, but we will get to that in a
bit.
The next product shown was a Cisco phone. They
show these Cisco phones more than once leading me to believe that this was
product placement. The only point that may lead me to believe that these Cisco
phones are not product placement is the fact that they don’t use it at all and
it is only used as a prop in the background.
During the scene where Dwight is
removing all the food from the vending machine and replacing it with whole
fruits and vegetables there are numerous products shown. This ranges from many
Herr’s products, Clif Bars, Swedish Fish, and many more. I believe that this is
product placement even though they show it for only a short period of time. The
viewer watching it immediately will scan the vending machine for snacks they
enjoy eating thus causing them to want these snacks and go out to get them.
This is definitely product placement and it is also a very amusing scene.
Up next there was an American Red
Cross poster shown and a First Aid Kit. To notice these things I literally had
to pause my computer and squint to see what they said, therefore eliminating
the chance that they were product placement. I simply think these were there to
add to the office-like scenery.
In the office where they work the
employees all have HD computers. This is product placement for sure because HD
is trying to promote their computers and trying to appeal to possible computer
buyers. By using the HD computers they are putting out the message that HD is
reliable and all businesses need to have and use them.
Next, there is a scene that takes
place in Pam’s college class. They do a pan across the entire room of students
and every single one of them has Mac Book’s. There it is the big product that
is getting advertised throughout the show. This is the point where I realized
not only is this definitely product placement, but it confirmed that the IPod I
had mentioned earlier was also product placement. Later on in the episode Jim Face
Times Pam on his Mac Book which is even more exposure for Apple products. Apple
is clearly a major advertisement on this episode.
The last two things I noticed while
watching this episode were most likely not product placement, but I just
thought it was funny to see them since I have these products in my own refrigerator.
These were Wegman’s organic maple syrup and a Turkey Hill magnet. Although I
don’t think either of these companies are specific to our area it was humorous
to see things around my house on a tv show episode.
To wrap things up there were a
large number of items shown throughout the “weight loss” episode of The Office.
A number of these products such as the first aid kit or the Wegman’s maple
syrup were not product placements. There were quite a few that were though,
such as Apple, HP, Cisco phone, and all those delicious snacks from the vending
machine.
