I’m not the first person on the web to profess my love for Grey’s Anatomy in a blog. The show is fraught with dramatic medical sweetness. But the last episode “Don’t Deceive Me (Please Don’t Go) is freaking advertising gold. The show worked in a Twitter appearance (and really a whole Twitter sub plot) that had me and every swooning viewer rushing to search twitter for interesting medical feeds. More specifically I was trying to find Dr. Bailey’s feed (which I did not find) even though I have no actual interest in the technicalities of surgery.
What I am really trying to say here is “props to Twitter”. This was the a hugely effective way to integrate product placement. Twitter came off as a star of this episode and in no way put off audiences. Of course we have all seen product placement in our favorite TV shows but not many are done with the finesse of Twitter on Grey’s Anatomy. During my exciting “kick-off-the-weekend” festivities (catching up on all the Hulu programming I’ve missed during the week) I watched Bones (The Sin in the Sisterhood) tout the capabilities of the Prius. In some kind of vaguely relevant conversation with Booth, Temperance mentioned the Prius she was driving “lets you know” when you’re too close to the car in front of you. Yeah my brain kinda shut off there. Granted the Prius is pretty cool and all those nifty features….totally wish I had one, but 2 minuets later when the decomposed body shows up in the corn field, I forgot about about the cool features of the hybrid. But in this latest episode of Grey’s Dr. Bailey and Dr. Webber argued over the use of twitter in O.R. and through the whole episode the viewers saw the service in a serious and meaningful light. Of course everybody knew that at the end Webber would have to cave and ultimately allow Dr. Bailey to “tweet” as she pleased. Regardless of shifty marketing tactics, I’m sold on twitter. What a great educational tool! I feel like I have already disclosed far too much about the episode so I won’t go into anymore detail. You’ll have to watch it and see for yourself the Grey’s Anatomy debut of Twitter.
Twitter…Love it!
Since were on the topic here, SHAMELESS ADVERTISING AT ITS BEST (or worst?)!
Verizon Wireless is….um….eloquently promoted on 30 Rock? No subtlety there!
Sex and the City finds a way to throw in a perfectly scripted Amazon.com reference! Who among us can really deny that we’ve ever bought a self help book, a box of size “medium” condoms or a guide to bettering one’s sex life from Amazon? Totally anonymous and over night shipping! Weee ha!
We all see them all the time, they make our “viewing experience” just a little more ….hmm…special. If you’ve got some good ones throw them up in the comments!
Just as a small parting gift to my wonderful viewers I present to you…the Hawaii Chair!
Some really awful product development, marketing and well, just bad TV.
So I leave you today with the hope that you will go to Hulu and watch the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy (love it of course!) and then scour the web for a real life Dr. Bailey! Good luck and please let me know if you find her!
