Everything began last week with an article by The New York Time. Uncorrect… everything started with a soap opera produced in new York in Spanish language for the big Hispanic community called “Más Sabe el Diablo” (“The Devil Knows Best”). Started in May, it has been having much more success than what was expected maybe because it tells the story set in the urban slums, of the hard and tough life of a young widow , Perla Béltran, that has been trying to get out from such a dissifuclt situatuion through her work at the census Bureau. With the excuse to visit her neighbourhood, the different stories come along with a violent and gloomy portrait. But the real character of the serial, everybody has noted this, is “The United States Census Bureau”, a real office that in 2010 will get to an end with its new census. Product placement was not agreed upon but we can bet the census officers can be very happy about it. The spokesperson of the bureau, patricia Gaitan, has definied product placement as the perfect way to promote their services (ofteen considered with suspect) and involves so many persons that she has decided to call it “people placement”. However two days ago a professional blogger, “Wayne Friedman”, has put two questions: what could have happended if “Friends” instead of meeting at the Central Perk cafè would have met at Starbuck’s? And how much rumour would have done Ugly betty working for Vogue instead of Moods? The list goes on but maybe the one about citations is still longer:

The Smithsonian in “Bones”, “Fedex” in Cast Away, Cats in “Harry meets Sally” or the Magnolia Bakery in Sex and the City… It is not so easy to distinguish the planned product placement from the one chosen freely, because this is the nature of TV and cinema, but above all this is the real strenght of product placement.