I decided to watch a half hour episode of The Big Bang Theory and look for moments of product placement. I have heard in the past that the show often has obvious product placement, and I wanted to see it for myself.
I watched episode 5 of season 3, The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary, that premiered in October 2009. I had already seen the episode prior to this viewing, so I was able to focus on the set up and potential product placements. In this episode, Sheldon uses his photographic memory to attempt to beat his enemy, Wil Wheaton, in an enchanted card game. In the meantime, Howard asks Penny to set him up on a date with one of her friends.
Much of the plot development took place through conversations over a meal. This allowed for multiple drink brands to be showcased during these scenes.
In the very first shot of the episode, the screen zoomed out from a Sierra Mist can sitting on the coffee table, where they were playing the card game. The brand name was constantly facing the camera, even when the angle changed. All other cans or bottles on the table were either turned away from the camera or did not have a label. This keeps the emphasis on the Sierra Mist brand.
The Sierra Mist can showed up again in the next scene when the characters were talking over lunch. Two of the cans sat on the edge of the table so that no matter which character the camera was focused on, the brand would be seen. Once again, all other drinks were either turned or brand-less.
Sierra Mist was a very obvious product placement in this episode. I have no doubt that the cans were set purposefully. However, there were other products that were identifiable but not as obvious or reoccurring.
In the first scene where they were playing the card game on the coffee table, there was also a large pile of discarded food cartons on the kitchen counter that could be seen in the background and some other angles. I noticed two brands sitting on either edge of the counter: a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies and a large bottle of Sriracha hot sauce. These were definitely not a focus of the set, and I think I only picked them out because I am familiar with both brands. They were both set with their labels facing outward, though, and they were also surrounded by other anonymous food packages so they stood out.
A similar situation happened in the final scenes of the card game competition. All of the competitors had tall colorful cans either in their hands or on the table in front of them. At first I could not identify the cans since they were turned away from the camera, but as the scenes went on I spotted the labels of Izze Beverages and RedBull. I'm not entirely sure if this is an example of product placement or not. The brands were hard to pick out, but there were at least four or five cans in each shot. It did not seem like a random set decision.
There was only one scene where there was no product placement in the shot, and almost half of the scenes included the most obvious Sierra Mist placement. Now that I've truly paid attention to an episode of The Big Bang Theory, I can clearly understand why viewers have become aware and sometimes annoyed by the blatant product placement.
