Grey's Anatomy

Today in class we talked about Grey's Anatomy being one of the shows benefiting from college students now being included in the ratings process. Because we are targeting that age in our project and it is one of my favorite shows, I decided to watch the latest episode to see how much product placement I could spot.

I didn't find as much as I thought I would, although I am sure it is a very expensive show to place products on. What I did see included:

1. Pringles brand chips on the counter in the background of the main character's house. They have such unique packaging I could tell right away what they were.

2. On the fridge there was the logo for Breast Cancer Awareness, the pink ribbon. Although this isn't really a product placement, it is an easily identifiable logo for a good cause that is associated with a medical show. It fit well.

3. Starbucks coffee. With the hectic schedules in the hospital, it is no wonder the characters drink so much coffee. What I noticed, however, was that four times they showed the easily identifiable Starbuck's cup in a main character's hand. It's a great fit for the lifestyle of the characters.

4. One character, a man in the hospital, was talking on a Nokia cell phone. This one I found a little out of place since you cannot have cell phones on in the hospital, but hey I noticed it still!

5. While doing research for a surgery, I noticed the dell logo on a laptop that one of the interns was using.

6. While two characters were out to dinner in a sports bar type place, there was a lit sign for Falling Rock Ale in the background. I am not sure if this is a real brand or not but I noticed it.

7. Although it was not shown, there was a mention of PowerPoint in the episode as well as the residents were doing presentations for promotions.

And finally, though it was not product placement, I noticed that Nissan sponsored the episode on ABC.com. The Nissan logo was displayed above the screen for the entire thing, with three short ads thrown in to the episode. The commercials did not bother me even though they are impossible to close without watching the entire thing. I think Nissan did a great job because they made the ads interactive, which wasn't as boring as just sitting through them. It also helped that they were not the same ad each time but different ones.


To watch Grey's Anatomy, go to ABC.com.