Product Placement in MITM

Squeaky Yugi

New member
Re: product placement

In "The Bots and the Bees" Dewey drinks too much Sunkist, and in "Malcolm Visits College" Hal drinks one (look for the orange cans)

In "Lois's Sister" Hal's groceries include a box of Froot Loops (and it looks like he got hungry on the way home)

In "Company Picnic" Lois frisks Dewey and finds a Crunch bar among other things

In "Krelboyne Girl" Cynthia mentions Doritos by name

In "If Boys Were Girls" Dewey plays with Bionicles. In "Reese's Apartment" When he's getting rid of Reese's stuff to make room for his own, you can see them again

In "Bowling" you can see a Charmander plush in the boys' room. In "Monkey" it's one of the things Hal whacks with his golf club

Reese sleeps with a Squirtle pillow (I forgot which episode)
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Re: product placement

Excellent, excellent. Now, what I wonder is this:

How many of these are paid "advertisements" by their company, and how many does Linwood just throw in to make it seem a little more realistic? Most of the things we've pointed out (with the exception of the clothes) are "normal" things that most families have.
 

MITM18

New member
Re: product placement

Regency owns a part of Puma.

I believe the rule is if you show it on TV than there was a deal exchanged between Fox/Regency with another company since the rule of thumb in the buisness is why promote a product for free when you can promote and get money for it.

I love product placement alot in shows especially Malcolm since I can relate to it even more than if they made up products, it makes it more real.

I would hate to have (umaginary) product placement like in The Truman Show, where the woman is talking about coffee to Truman, and Truman says, "Who are you talking too?"
 

Emrysgirl

New member
Re: product placement

Squeaky Yugi said:
In "Lois's Sister" Hal's groceries include a box of Froot Loops (and it looks like he got hungry on the way home)
Also, in Sleepover, Stanley asks Finley for Frootloops before the Brothers of the Appocalypse take him away.

What happened to Stanley? Did they give any reason for the character not appearing in the show?
 

Garbage Kills Megan

parties with your mom
Re: product placement

yardgames said:
Excellent, excellent. Now, what I wonder is this:

How many of these are paid "advertisements" by their company, and how many does Linwood just throw in to make it seem a little more realistic? Most of the things we've pointed out (with the exception of the clothes) are "normal" things that most families have.
I often wonder this too. Sometimes it is just funnier to use a brand name instead of just saying what kind of food it is. For example: Asking for Footloops before the Brothers of the Apocalypse take you away is funnier than just asking for cereal. It just is. I don't work on tv shows, so I could be wrong about this, but I think sometimes the writers put a brandname in, and then the lawyers will go ask permission of the company. For example, in ET, it was originally written that he would eat m&ms, but when they asked for permission from the company, they said no, so they did Reese's Pieces instead. Now, the thing with Puma is an agreement with the company that had nothing to do with what was written in the script. So I wonder how many of these other things people have noticed were agreements with a company, and how many were just written in, and they asked permission for later.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Re: product placement

Emrysgirl said:
Also, in Sleepover, Stanley asks Finley for Frootloops before the Brothers of the Appocalypse take him away.

What happened to Stanley? Did they give any reason for the character not appearing in the show?
I believe it was because Francis moved to Alaska.
 

Emrysgirl

New member
Re: product placement

yardgames said:
I believe it was because Francis moved to Alaska.
No. They phased him out much before and Eric became more important. I think the last ep Stanley appeared in was Rollerskates, a whole season before Francis left Marlin Academy.

MITM18 is probably right. The actor must have gotten another job.
 

Jimmy Junior

New member
Re: product placement

I'm not sure how it works in America, but in England it would seem that you can use branded products provided they're not used significantly as props - in Eastenders (English soap opera) they don't go to extreme lengths to rebrand every item in the local shop or the breakfast cereals in the characters' kitchens because they're considered to be everyday items, but in the local pub everyone drinks 'Churchills', which isn't a real beer - if they asked for a real brand name every time it would be considered to be either product placement (which the BBC aren't allowed to do) or unauthorised use of the brand name.
 

Emrysgirl

New member
Re: product placement

Garbage Kills Megan said:
I was just watching Old Mrs. Old and Reese was standing in the background, eating from a giant box of Corn Pops that was aimed right at the camera.
Dewey was also eating Corn Pops in Health Scare.
 

Squeaky Yugi

New member
Re: product placement

In "Red Dress" You can see Sim Life on the boys' shelf

Also, the Gameboy has grown up along with the boys.

In "Rollerskates" Reese palys on a Gameboy Colour despite that fact that it has no cartridge

In "Evacuation" Dewey is given a Gameboy Colour with a Worm Lite

In "Forwards Backwards" Lois and Hal offer Dewey Malcaolm's Gameboy Advance as an apology

In "Reese Joins the Army" Reese is playing a Gameby Advance SP

Who wants to guess when the DS will make an appearance?
 

Dewey

Minimalistic
Re: product placement

I have noticed something here...

The introduction of this thread is also full of product placements....kind of ironic isn't it?
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
Re: product placement

In a season 1 episode (forget which one) The have a panasonic phone in their kitchen that is exactly like mine, except mine is black, there's is white.
 

Emrysgirl

New member
Re: product placement

J. said:
In a season 1 episode (forget which one) The have a panasonic phone in their kitchen that is exactly like mine, except mine is black, there's is white.
Sleepover?
 

Squeaky Yugi

New member
Re: product placement

In "Hal Coaches" they do the opposite. In the beginning, when Malcolm and Reese are sliding the peanut butter back and forth to each other, they put a spin on the jar so that while it's in motion you can't see the label
 
Re: product placement

Yeah, the family eat branded cereal!! I'm guessing Nintendo DS will appear in the eighth season (if there is an eighth season!!)
 
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