We all know about product placement in today’s media. When companies put their products in movies, or TV shows for exposure. I think we’ve just struck a new high (or low) watermark for product placement and blatant self-promotion though.
Sony’s Playstation 3, Playstation Portable and Playstation Eye, along with EA’s Burnout Paradise are featured in Wyclef Jean’s new music video “Fast Car.” That’s all fine and dandy, but now that music video is being featured in high definition on the Playstation Network’s Playstation Store. Not content to end the promotion there, “news” of all this is being featured on CNN’s website. I’m not quite sure if such blatant product placement and distribution amplifies the effectiveness or cancels it out completely?
Is this new synergy a result of Wyclef’s record label being a subsidiary of Sony? I hope this isn’t the future of downloadables for PSN… Good Grief.
For the full “news” coverage, including why Wyclef Jean felt the Playstation and Burnout Paradise “helped” him “get the attention of youngsters,” check here. Yeah, I’m sure Burnout and PS3 helped him… Give me a break. Sounds like Columbia Records tapping big brother Sony for a helping hand with Wyclef’s music.
Besides, last time I checked, Wyclef was younger than me. *sigh*
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8 responses so far ↓
1 Sean "rothbart" Workman // Mar 25, 2008 at 3:03 pm
That said… I have to add this for full disclosure…
I… liked it…. (except for the factually incorrect parts, like a flash with the PS Eye, Split-screen in Burnout Paradise, etc.)
*holds head in shame*
LOL! The “captcha” text I have to type in is “that crazy”. True… very true.
2 balaamsafe // Mar 25, 2008 at 3:16 pm
it’s being played on a sony bravia as well, lol
3 Youlikeyams // Mar 25, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I’m sorry, but nothing is worse than watching Transformers. Trust me - anything that can be whored is in that dumb car crash of a movie.
Also, speaking of Burnout Paradise, I love how EA sold it out. Burger King billboards, Gillette and Diesel vans, Walmart, Circuit City and Gamestop cars…as wonderful an idea as capitalism is, it can go way too far if it leaks into the gaming industry.
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5 RK1 FaMiCuS // Mar 25, 2008 at 4:08 pm
That Fast Car video was crap, everyone knows there are no people in Paradise City, it is all run by cars.
6 Dableo // Mar 25, 2008 at 7:45 pm
So you use a Sony service to download something advertising Sony? Wtf? Why advertise something you’re already using?
7 Tweep // Mar 25, 2008 at 10:16 pm
@Dableo
Sony is a big company with many divisions… They are advertising via the Playstation brand many of their other brands.
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