Product placement has been around just as long
as the entertainment industry. Sometimes product
placement is subtle and sometimes it’s not, but I’m
sure we can all recognize it when we see it, especially
when a product or concept doesn’t fit with the rest
of whatever we’re watching.
That was pretty much the case with NBC’s Green
Week, which began on Sunday, Nov. 4, and ended
Saturday, Nov 10.
Green Week consisted of environmental initiatives
integrated with 150 hours of NBC Universal’s scripted
and unscripted programs on all of its properties,
including CNBC, NBC News, SciFi, Bravo and
Telemundo.
Although the writers strike is starting to affect some
TV shows, Green Week was hard to miss because it
was everywhere, from soap operas to game shows
to primetime.
Call me a cynic, but Green Week did not exactly
inspire me to get off my futon and do my part for
the environment. Is it too much to ask to watch a
TV show without being reminded that I need to
drive a hybrid car or go buy a solar farm? I get it,
I do, but Green Week is about as cringe-worthy as
product integration. Remember when the iPod craze
started, and every other TV character was rocking
out to songs on iTunes?
Now that “going green” is sexy, I can understand
why NBC would want a piece of this pie (well, as long
as they bake it in a solar oven). Despite the company’s
good intentions for environmental awareness, Green
Week just seems like a giant publicity stunt.
The funny thing about Green Week is that we
should have seen it coming.
Will Green Week become one of those annual
thematic events, along with the requisite election
episode and the feel-good holiday episode? (You
know what I’m talking about: Mr. Voice will tease
us with, “On this special ‘ER’ holiday .” while we
are graced with a shot of John Stamos cradling an
infant. As if “ER” hasn’t been through enough already,
that’s enough to make me yak.)
Three of my must-see NBC shows, “Chuck,”
“Scrubs” and “30 Rock,” all featured some sort of
environmental undertone. Because these shows are
comedies and not dramas, they can play a little more
tongue-in-cheek and walk away relatively unscathed.
The best part of last Thursday’s episode of “30
Rock” actually wasn’t David Schwimmer’s turn as
a righteous dolt, but Al Gore’s cameo as himself.
At the end of the episode, Gore cuts off Tina Fey’s
character, stares into the distance and says, “Quiet!
A whale is in trouble! I have to go.”
You’d think TV executives would know that if we
viewers really wanted to go green, we’d turn off our
TV sets for a week and go read some books printed
with soy ink on recycled paper.