Sunday, January 10, 2010
Product Placement: Home Edition
I hadn't seen an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in some time. As much as I love the premise of the show and the reaction of the people when they see their incredible new homes, I find it hard to stomach Ty Pennington's spazzy, manic yelling and then whiplash, soft-spoken, barfy, whispery segments about how he's changing lives. I've always disliked the product placement and name drops of companies donating their items to the show but it was a sad but necessary thing in getting these deserving families a new home. But after tonight? Wow! They aren't even pretending to be subtle anymore. Logo shots on every single item in the house before the reveal. It made me sick. No major corporation in this country donates their money and products without needing everyone in the world to know it was them who did it. It's certainly not because they care. They just want the publicity. I always knew that, it's just hard to see it be done so conspicuously and blatantly. It's so shameless.
In the end it gives these families a far better life (assuming they can pay for it), but it feels empty knowing these companies want everyone to know did it more for themselves than anyone else.
