The Future is NOW!
So there's some talk about whether Tivo (and the like) are making commercials irrelevant, or at least ineffective. Gretchen, Jen & I were actually talking about this (somewhat) at breakfast yesterday. Gretchen hadn't heard of something that Jen & I were discussing, and attributed it to the fact that she watches everything on Tivo and so she doesn't see commercials anymore.

But the new strategies are hitting. They've gone beyond the product placement approach. While watching NBC (Earl, The Office, 30 Rock), they each did it. On Earl, in one of the promos right at the beginning of the break (or the end, I'm not for sure) they actually advertised one of the ads.

"Who's Ellen working with now? Watch for her new commercial during the show!"

It was just another AmEx commercial.

Then during The Office, Kevin was monologuing about how they don't give him much responsibility around the office, but the one thing they let him do is shred documents. He was really excited about getting to use the shredder--about how it could shred anything, "It can shred a CD, and watch this--a credit card! And... oh crap."

I thought the big staples logo was the extent of the ad, but NO! Wait for the synergy--followed in the next break (and also during the next show) by a standard commercial for the shredder. (It's seventy bucks, that's nonsense.)

Then 30 Rock (which just isn't growing on me) was doing an episode where they were supposed to put corporate products into the sketches (which included a big toungue-in-cheek spiel about Snapple).

So tell me, interesting or just a marketing nerd on the loose?