Posted by Karen Hanretty at 12:00 am on Jul 24, 2006 Comments Off on Garamendi tells consumers: You’ll Love it at Levitz!
Every pop cultureenthusiast knows about the practice
of"product placement" in movies, television, video games and
music videos.
If you grew up in the 80s you probably begged your mom to buy
Reese’s Pieces with after you saw the movie E.T. Or perhaps
your first exposure to a DeLorean was in the movie theaters,
watching the eternally youthful Michael J. Fox in Back to the
Future.
My favorite modern day villain (right after Al Gore) is Austin
Power’s Dr. Evil, who invested in Starbucks as a way of raising the
necessary capital for world domination. (Why didn’t I think of
that?)
Last year, Governor Schwarzenegger was accused of getting in the
product placementbusiness when one of his political TV ads
prominently featured Pepsi and Arrowhead Water — products owned by
Nestle, which donated about a quarter million to the gov’s
campaign.
So while product placement in politics isn’t entire unheard of,
I was still surprised when I saw that Insurance Commission John
Garamendi, and candidate for Lt. Governor, used product placement
in a…press release!
"Under the new regulations, the… Read More