Reality TV Product Placement

Noted Flipping The Channels Past "Reality" TV

I like reality TV, except that what I call "reality TV" others would call "the news."

What I don't like is putting people in artificially contrived circumstances and then calling it "reality." They're characters acting as much as any SAG members. In fact the whole initial boom of reality shows was during an actor's strike and it was a way to keep the tube lit without union members. So to me "reality TV" is kind of like scabbing. I prefer the term "show without professional actors"

Flipping past a "reality" TV show (featuring a group of sisters Sir Mix-A-Lot would admire) I noticed that almost every product logo was blurred: you couldn't see the brand on a water bottle or a shoebox in the trash; even a t-shirt logo was obscured.

Yet one character is very clearly seen using a Mac. So did the producers just miss that one? Or is that a paid product placement and the rest of the banned brands didn't pay up? Is this tne way of the future to get around the ease of ad-skipping, or is it already happening and I'm just behind the curve? It's been happening significantly enough in movies for so long that it was already ripe for parody nearly two decades ago:



While I'm on the subject of TV I've figured out what the commonality between all of the Disney Channel's live human being shows: they're about what pre-teens and tweens imagine being a teenager is like. Also, they have this weird habit of showing computers that are clearly Macs but with a pear where the apple should be. Must be someone's in-joke.