Smart advertising

I've been meaning to write about this for a while- and, no, I don't have a weird obsession with product placement.

If you watch the show Heroes, it's impossible to not know what the Nissan Versa looks like- after all, it's the car from the future that Hiro (a character on the show) specifically asks for when he lands in America and is at the car rental office- and of course, the rental agency had only one car left.

The Versa is Nissans newest model that I've only seen advertised on TV- I love that they are doing product placements in the show Heroes. They take it a step further and have ads on the Heros page on nbc.com, and on the Heroes blog, and on Hiro's blog. They have the Versa in their comic book too (top right), which is available on their website and is incorporated into the show.

Since most internet users are immune to ads on the internet and most people switch channels or forward thorough ads on TV or the radio, I wonder why more companies aren't doing these product placements- I think it's one form of advertising that cannot be ignored- sure you can stop watching a show, but how many people just stop watching a show they like? I don't watch a lot of TV, but I watch enough to know that there isn't enough product placement on TV. Of course I don't want it to get to a point where I'm watching commercials when I'm watching a show, but I think this is a market that advertisers need to capitalize on.

From the Mini Cooper in the Italian job, to Carrie Bradshaw's Macintosh laptop, product placement works- and isn't limited to the several placements done in James Bond movies!