Enforced Plug: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

You can usually tell when these are coming; they appear at the end of the show, after the credits or any time in-show after a very obvious segue. The actors also try their best to make it sound exciting, but it's fairly easy to tell they're just going through the motions of [[Product Placement]], the plug sounding wooden and forced.

 

Compare [[The Shill]], See Also [[Now Buy the Merchandise]].

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Universal's ''Islands of Adventure'' is mentioned from time to time in the ''[[Marvel Comics 2]]'' line of Marvel Comics.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* The 1988 ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial|E.T.]]'' knockoff ''Mac and Me'' was a virtual two-hour advertisement for McDonald's and Coca-Cola.

** Incidentally, ''E.T.'' itself averts the trope by prominently featuring Reeses' Pieces, but never actually naming the product.

** ''[[Demolition Man]]'': 15 years from now, Taco Bell is the only restaurant on Earth (or at least, in America). Dear Gods.

*** Due to a clever re-shoot, if you watched this movie outside the U.S., the only restaurant on Earth (or at least, in America) is Pizza Hut.

{{quote|'''Wayne:''' Yeah, thanks for doing my laundry. How do you get my clothes so white and fresh-smelling?

'''Cassandra:''' It's an old Cantonese method few people know about.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* The ''[[Thursday Next]]'' series has a lot of seemingly out-of-nowhere references to something called the Toast Marketing Board. {{spoiler|''One Of Our Thursdays Is Missing'' reveals that this is because when the ''written'' Thursday, who "plays" the first-person narrator of the ''Thursday Next'' books, briefly visited the real world, she took a big check from the Toast Marketing Board in exchange for inserting references to it into the series.}}

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

 

* ''[[Extreme Makeover: Home Edition]]'' sometimes degenerates to this, when they can't find a less obvious way to reveal that they're completely stocking the house with products from Sears and its subsidiaries.

* Parodied in ''[[Extras]]'', where [[Coldplay]] star Chris Martin makes an appearance on Andy Millman's sitcom after expressing "interest" to him and his producer. [[Executive Meddling|The producer ignores Andy's reasoning that having a celebrity randomly crop up in the show would not make much sense and even moves the filming day just to accommodate Martin's own schedule]]. His sudden appearance on the show is ham-handedly dealt with and is simply used as a vehicle to advertise Coldplay's "greatest hits" album, Chris Martin wearing a t-shirt with the album cover on it and Andy being forced to blatantly ask when it was being released. The critics jump on the event and blame Andy for it, claiming he was using it simply to "prop up his lame duck of a sitcom".

* ''[[Eureka]]'' sadly seems to be headed in this direction. BUY DEGREE DEODORANT NOW! It's being done in such an obvious, unsubtle way, though (it's even [[Lampshaded]] in the [[Tyrant Takes the Helm|'things are going to be different']] speech given by the tyrant taking over Global Dynamics), that this Troper wonders if it this was a deliberate joke by the producers that's gotten a bit out of hand. (No other [[Sci Fi]] series does anything like this, much less this obviously bad)

** Can't be any doubt. One recent episode had character Zane develop a substance that will protect a person from the heat, even from flamethrowers and runaway dwarf stars. Right there on Zane's desk is a Degree Deodorant roll-on. Apparently, in the ''Eureka'' universe, this product is also real and can do all the fantastic things we see in the degree commercials.

** This has escalated in recent seasons, with Panda Express and other food items. It's always [[Lampshaded]] in a [[Money, Dear Boy|we have to pay the bills somehow]] kind of way.

* Parodied in one episode of ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' where the characters start blurting out [[The Burger King|Burger King]] mid-speech or the camera keeps jump cutting to a Burger King restaurant. Even the narrator thinks Burger King is awesome.

** Somewhat played straight in ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' with Subway.

* There was a really painful example of this in a recent episode of ''[[Bones]]'', in which the characters apparently decided that the best way to solve their current case was to consult Cesar Milan, TV's "Dog Whisperer." This plug was particularly [[Egregious]] because it took up about half of the actual episode. A good [[Drinking Game]] might be to watch this episode, and take a shot every time someone stares at Cesar in contractually obligatory awe.

**** However the [[A Wizard Did It|justification for a random school trip to Florida]] did alleviate the blatant nature of the episode by way of [[Rule of Funny]].

** Add ''[[Modern Family]]'' to the list, as they just did a Disneyland episode.

** Later seasons have this plug almost [[Once an Episode]], likely because Subway was instrumental in promoting the show and keeping it on the air.

* The Nissan Versa in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' started out as creative and original product placement, but later cars degenerated into this trope.

* In ''[[Seinfeld]]'', Jerry would often randomly and blatantly offer other characters a Snapple, who would always decline.

** There was a decent amount of product placement in that show in general.

* On ''[[The Office]]'' manager Michael Scott often mentions various generic products that he thinks are the best thing ever. However, Michael Scott is the show's resident idiot and the show is presented as a [[Mockumentary]], so it is quite likely Michael is being paid to do this, and not the writers.

* Since the guest's purpose on ''[[The Daily Show]]'', like any other talk show, is to promote their latest publication/production/project, Jon naturally wraps each interview with a reference to it. Sometimes the guests will invoke the trope themselves; the more satirical Lampshading fanfare they do it with, the more likely they're about to go [[Off the Rails]].

* In one very memorable episode of ''[[I've Got a Secret]]'', Harpo Marx was the guest star, his secret being to pantomine various common phrases (For example: He puts jam on a light bulb and pretends to eat it..having a 'Light Lunch'). For the last phrase he took out a copy of his just published book "Harpo Speaks" with a large hole drilled though it. He then took the missing piece and put it in the hole...literally 'Plugging His Book'.

** However, it likely backfired on the Sidekick hard, as Christopher is well known to most of the fandom as [[The Scrappy|The Adult Scrappy]] that nobody cares about, like the Sidekick by the time that episode aired.

* Parodied on ''[[Top Gear]]'' when Jeremy Clarkson needed to drive a car owned by a member of [[Pink Floyd]], but he would only let him drive it if he could have his book plugged. Product placement and advertising are banned on [[The BBC]], so Clarkson drove around trying to '[[Blatant Lies|subtly work]]' references to Pink Floyd and the book into his car review.

{{quote|'''Clarkson''': In fact, I think the only thing better looking than [the Ferrari F60]...is this book, Inside Out, by [the drummer from Pink Floyd].}}

* ''[[Men of a Certain Age]]'' has Chevrolet as a major sponsor, and the plot of one episode revolved around first creating a straight commercial for Chevrolet's latest model, then a series of zany viral spots on Terry's recommendation.

* Done ''[[Gushing About Shows You Like|brilliantly]]'' in one episode of ''[[Alice and Bob]]'', where a number of [[Trope Co]] products are worked seamlessly into an engaging and thought-provoking plotline. Not only that, they also manage to get across the superior workmanship of [[Trope Co]] products, and do it all with a wry, knowing self-deprecation that showcases [[Trope Co]]'s general easygoing ethos.

** Man, [[Trope Co]] ''rules''. I can't imagine any other market-leading company having such a close relationship with its customers and the artistic community! Are you watching, corporate executives? ''This is how it's done''.

 

== [[Machinima]] ==

== [[Podcast]] ==

* [[Writing Excuses]] has a regular plug around the 7 to 8 minute mark. Originally it was sponsored by Tor.com, but when they lack a sponsor for a particular episode they are either shill their own books (the other 'casters hum in the background when this happens) or resort to comedy, including "Buy Dan Bacon" and "Pants".

Dan: "Pants: Put them Back On, Please." }}

* All of [http://www.slate.com/id/2247323/ Slate Magazine's podcasts] are sponsored by Audible.com, a site that sells digital downloads of audiobooks. Every one of their Gabfest shows has a break set aside in the middle where they talk about Audible and a tie-in promo offer. The hosts at least try and connect this to the show, by asking listeners to recommend books - but they have to be books that are available in audio form from the sponsor.

*** This is no longer the case for Slate- they are now sponsored by an online-backup service (who also sponsors many tech and comedy podcasts). In place of the Audible recommendations is now, on the Culture Gabfest, a [[Running Gag]] involving movie critic Dana Stevens [[Never Live It Down|spilling chai on someone's laptop]].

 

* Happens a lot on bigger TV events, as between matches the commentators sloppily segue into a plug for the upcoming Pay-Per-View event, a sponsor's product, the latest movie starring one of the wrestlers, etc. Commentators on independent shows will utilize often even sloppier plugs for their upcoming live shows.

** "This episode of ''WWE Raw'' is brought to you by [http://youtube.com/watch?v=nBAXWZ6vLRc fruity, fruity, delicious, fruity SKITTLES!]"

** Sean Hannity recently started doing this as well on his radio show, usually during the short segment before the top of the hour. Hannity also occasionally uses callers as a segue to talking about his Escalade.

*** The late Paul Harvey was the uncontested king of this.

** As does Mark Levin... it's quite annoying, since they will move into this without warning. "Health care reform is a mess! But do you know what we need? We need Carbonite, to secure our computer data!"

*** They have to get paid somehow.

***** The ad revenue is what allows those ten million dollar contracts to be paid, so yes.

* One vintage radio show that [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade]]d this all to pieces was ''[[Fibber McGee and Molly]]''. Midway through each episode, announcer Harlow Wilcox would drop in on the McGees (or they'd run into him while on some errand in town), and would quickly shift discussion of any topic to extolling the virtues of Johnson's Self-Polishing Glo-Coat floorwax. It got to where Fibber or Molly would groan and say "[[Here We Go Again]]" or some variation thereof whenever Wilcox - or "Waxy", as Fibber nicknamed him - began holding forth.

** The ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh7LlYonA8g based on the show] parodies this.

** In fact many of Benny's commercials were done with deliberate [[Lampshade Hanging|hanging of lampshades]], as in the following exchanges:

'''Kenny Baker''' (as Watson): "[[No Fourth Wall|Commercial taken care of.]]" }}

* ''[[A Prairie Home Companion]]'' often segues a dramatic story into a suggestion for Bebop-a-Rebop Rhubarb Pie or Powdermilk Biscuits (in the big blue box!)

 

== [[Sports]] ==

== [[Web Original]] ==

* ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'' spoofed this, with Linkara's robot double pointing out a plug, and Linkara snaps "Shut up, hippie! He gave me a discount!"

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* The ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'' episode "Boost Mobile", ''shockingly'' contains Enforced Plugs.

* ''[[American Dad]]'' [[Lampshaded]] an enforced plug for Burger King. Stan and Steve were discussing about how to expose the truth about peanut butter in a ''[[National Treasure]]'' [[Whole-Plot Reference]] at a Burger King restaurant, and Steve asked him why they were at a Burger King. Stan told him that [[Product Placement|the laws of TV economics have changed]].

* The latest ''[[Futurama]]'' [[Christmas Episode]] parodies this, especially early and late in the episode.

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{{reflist}}

[[Category:Advertising Tropes]]