Enforced Plug: Difference between revisions

== [[Film]] ==

* Parodied in ''Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'', where the station covering a NASCAR race cuts to commercial in the middle of a dramatic crash, followed by an actual Applebee's commercial appearing in the middle of the movie--but that's not even the punchline. The punchline is that when the race coverage returns after the commercial, ''the crash is still happening''.

** 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?<br />

'''Cassandra:''' It's an old Cantonese method few people know about.<br />

* ''[[X-Play]]'' likewise tends to plug an online game rental store numerous times during each show. They try to mix it up to keep it interesting, but after the first hundred times, it's grown very thin.

* Call-in voting for talent shows always mentions what telephone company is sponsoring the phone lines.

* 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".

* It's gotten bad in [[Burn Notice]] so far as cars are concerned. Lately, it's been amped-up Hyundais. It's gotten so bad that at one point, having used their super-Hyundai to bust into something, Sam and Fi stood around for a moment talking about what a great car it was before running off to continue the episode. (This could easily have been [[Lampshading]] by the writers, though.)

* More than one episode of ''[[I Love Lucy]]'' had the plot hijacked for several minutes for an [[Infomercial]] on the sponsor's product.

** ''I Love Lucy'' was actually very subtle for its time. Check out [http://www.archive.org/details/georgeburnsandgracieallen this episode of] ''The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show''. Every single episode was like that.

* ''[[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.

* ''[[Psych]]'' has had a few jarring [[Product Placement|Product Placements]]. This one's gotten the impression that Shawn Spencer's writer didn't particularly like advertising Dunkin' Donuts, and [[Writer Revolt|did his best to make sure it was jarring, random, and blown off by other characters]].

** 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.

** The method of the parody was excellent, it involved a scene set in Burger King between two characters as one of them was trying to persuade the chain to purchase an enforced plug of an episode he was directing for the [[Show Within a Show|show within the show]].

* 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.

** Is ''that'' who he was? This sort of thing really confuses tropers who live outside the original catchment area of the show...

** More than one episode has dropped everything so one character can tell another about a neat feature of whatever land whale they're driving.

* [[Stephen Colbert]] parodies this often with Doritos, once even spending an entire week on location in "Chili-delphia, the city of brotherly crunch." In a weird sort of reverse [[Product Placement]], Doritos hadn't actually paid him when he started the gag, but apparently a deal has been reached involving the large exchange of Nacho Cheese Doritos.

** One has to wonder if the writers [[Writer Revolt|raged against the shilling]], or if they were just bad at it. The episode revolved involved a shut down Stride production plant (and Cloe mocking their slogan) and returning character Pete going [[Ax Crazy]] from eating tainted gum. Neither one really sells you on Stride.

* ABC forced the producers of ''[[Roseanne]]'' to do an <s>episode</s> [[Infomercial]] about Disneyland. The producers retaliated by doing an episode about one of the characters being brainwashed while working at (almost literally) a Nazi theme park.

*** And ''[[Family Matters]]''... hell, pretty much every ABC sitcom in the '90s was forced to take a trip to [[Disneyland]] at some point, where wonder and romance invariably bloomed. Paris episodes were mandatory too for some reason.

*** Even [[The Muppet Show|the Muppets]] went to Walt Disney World. [[Statler and Waldorf]], true to form, still complained... about the place having nothing to complain about.

**** 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.

** It's ''almost'' [[Lampshaded]] in "Chuck vs. The First Kill" where Morgan is asked to bribe his boss with his "favorite thing." The favorite thing is of course donuts, but a chicken teriyaki foot-long is just as good.

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

* ''[[Monk]]'' can be really ridiculous when it comes to this trope. Two words: Buick Lucerne.

{{quote| '''Liz Lemon''': That Verizon Wireless service is just unbeatable! I mean, if I saw one of those phones on TV, I'd be like 'Where is my nearest retailer, so I can... get one?' ...[strained grin at camera] [[No Fourth Wall|Can we have our money now]]?}}

* Done in one episode of ''[[The West Wing]]'' (a Thanksgiving episode), in which the President calls up [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQsvcs9IB8A Butterball's advice line], pretending to be an ordinary citizen.

* 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.

** A common form is for him to mention a product (like an in-flight magazine subscription) in dialog with a coworker, and then expand on the greatness of the product in a talking head. Other times though, like with his [[Cracked]] (before it was a website) Magazine subscription, he tried to distance himself from the product.

* 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]].

* One episode of ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' was devoted to shilling the Sidekick (Seriously, the episode was even ''called'' 'I Get a Sidekick Out of You'.) It's pretty obvious-- Rory's father buys her a Sidekick and spends half the episode going on and on about how amazing it is, all while texting her constantly.

** 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.

* [[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".

{{quote| [[The Wheel of Time|Brandon]]: "This week's Writing Excuses is brought to you by Pants. Pants: You put them on your legs."<br />

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.

== [[Web Original]] ==

* [[College Humor]] has done this, most blatantly with Trojan condoms. One short (an animated Valentine's Day one starring Cupid, for those curious) was so [[Egregious|egregiously]] rife with the [[Product Placement]] for Trojan that nearly all the comments on the video were complaints about it.

** And the entire episode in question was an episode-long plug for the fictional movie ''Tinfins''.

* Parodied in one ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short starring Daffy Duck as a sadistic radio quiz show host and Porky Pig as the <s> victim</s> contestant. Every few minutes, Daffy would plug 'Eagle Hands Laundry.'

* Parodied in the ''[[Freakazoid]]'' episode [[Mission Impossible|"Mission: Freakazoid"]]. The show opened with the announcer saying "This episode is brought to you by Anubis Markets, a division of Osiris Foods. However, this will in no way affect the contents of today's story." But the story was periodically interrupted with Anubis Markets ads, and at the end, all the characters turned to the camera and delivered an extended ad for Anubis Markets ("Food so good you can eat it!")

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

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