Product placements gone wild

So if you're HBO, and the whole crazy world of television around you has lost its mind, and every second of airtime is being sold to the highest bidder, and the head of CBS is bragging to advertisers about how many products he's foist into the frames of his most popular shows ... if you're HBO, the last thing you want to do is look like a product shill.

Right?

Link: Kansas City Star | Aaron Barnhart | The $tar of the show

Product placements have jumped the shark. They're no longer innocuous ways for networks to make money on the sly. Now I watch for them all the time. I don't think I'm the only one. With thousands of "brand occurrences" happening every week, how can anyone avoid them? (See the chart on the jump.)

TV shows are infested with product placements. With the exception of HBO, which doesn’t accept payment for them, all the big networks are selling screen time in their shows. A sampling of who’s doing shout-outs for whom:

The show	The goods	Behind the plug
“American Idol”	Coke, Cingular phone, Ford SUV	Coca-Cola was the most-placed product last season, with the lion’s share of appearances being those bright red cups on “Idol.” The show is No. 1 among kids, which worries child experts. Young viewers, they say, can’t tell that a product is being plugged — as happened more than 3,200 times last year on “Idol.”
“The Sopranos”	Porsche Cayenne, Cingular phone, Philips TV	No money exchanged hands here … but you can bet HBO subscribers will remember the brands being flaunted on the show.
“CSI”	GMC Denali	Derisively referred to as “the SUV that solves crimes,” it sparked outrage when actors learned that producers were paid to work it into a script.
“Desperate Housewives”	Jewelry from Erica Courtney and Adina, handbags from Lorelei and Lauren Scherr	Creator Marc Cherry is said to be fighting the tide of product placement, none too successfully. Some items featured on the show are sold at ABC’s online store.
“24”	Ford SUV, Apple computer	The Macintosh, that long-running hipster accessory, has appeared in TV and films for years, including every season of “24,” as well as “Seinfeld,” “The Drew Carey Show” and gratis mentions on “The Sopranos.”
“Survivor”	“Casa de Charmin,” a reward outhouse stocked with Charmin tissue	Survivor host Jeff Probst used to feel skittish mentioning Target stores or the Pontiac Aztek on air. Now, he jokes, “I’m like, ‘What (brands) are we mentioning in this scene?’”
“The Apprentice”	Chevy Tahoe, Gillette Fusion razor, Post cereal (this season)	The second most pluggy show on TV after “The Contender” makes the brand a co-star alongside Donald Trump. Sponsors pay up to $5 million to have their goods used in “Apprentice” challenges.
“The Office”	Levi’s jeans	The New York Times reported that Levi’s paid NBC to have Steve Carell’s character talk about the jeans in an episode.
“Oprah”	Burberry coat and purse, Ralph Lauren sweater, Apple iPod, Kashwere robe	These are a few of the talk show queen’s “favorite things,” used in her annual Christmastime product placement extravaganza.
“Seinfeld”	Junior Mints	Who can forget the famous episode of the classic sitcom (which recently moved to Fox 4) where Kramer placed the product right into a surgical patient’s open cavity? The firm behind film’s most successful product placement — Reese’s Pieces in “E.T.” — minted this one, too.
“What I Like About You”	Tons of Procter & Gamble products	This WB sitcom was one of the 10 most product-plugging shows last season (and one of only three non-reality shows in the list), thanks to such shameless inclusions as the Clairol Herbal Essences hair contest around which a whole episode was built.
“Las Vegas”	NBC’s Olympics coverage, Wolfgang Puck	In what’s being called “one of the most elaborate product-placement deals ever,” the seventh Puck-run establishment in Las Vegas was recently opened … at the fictitious Montecito. The real Wolfgang made an appearance on “Las Vegas” Jan. 9 to “open” his restaurant.
“MADtv”	Toyota Yaris	The Writers Guild has complained that writers for this comedy show are being forced to “shoehorn” product placements in, like the recent sketch featuring this new car.