GTP (Gym, Tanning, Product Placement)

Well it was only a matter of time before I exposed the fact that I watch the Jersey Shore. I know, I know, it makes me a horrible person, it's unintellectual, blah blah blah. I think it's funny. That's no crime. Enough people agree with me to make the show wildly popular, and, as we all know, with popularity comes advertisements. Along with the wealth of TV spots that the main characters of the reality show are in, the show provides a pretty strong outlet for product placement.

It seems that the show's producers aren't shy about working products into their plots either. In one episode the cast members play with Flip cameras while they sit in their living room. Last week they passed around a Blackberry phone so that everyone could see a text message. The guys on the show wear Tapout, Ed Hardy, Affliction and other visible clothing brands every time they go out to the club. These instances are probably a mixture of bought product placement and character agency, but the point is clear, the show is full of brands.

However, some brands adamantly don't want to be a part of the show. A friend of mine tipped me off to an article about purse companies targeting one of the better known Jersey Shore personalities; Snooki (aka Nicole Polizzi). The companies are apparently sending Snooki free handbags for her to bring around. Pretty typical, right? Not exactly. According to the New York Observer brands like Gucci and Coach are sending their competitors bags (not their own) to Snooki in the hopes that they can equate other brand names with her controversial personality.

Interesting strategy. I can see where they are coming from. Snooki has a bit of an explosive personality and probably isn't the best name to have equated with your product, especially considering her widely publicized disorderly conduct arrest. On the other hand, the show is a smash hit and there are no doubt plenty of people out there willing to look past Snooki's less admirable characteristics. It's a bold move for these companies to try skew the public image of their competitors, but no more bold than Pauly D's hairstyle.

Seriously, though, to me this is pretty interesting case. It's not often that brands actively try to use public figures against their competitors and it's interesting that they chose such a popular show as Jersey Shore to target. In essence it seems that the companies are agreeing with the idea that viewers are drawn to the interests of the characters they watch, regardless of their moral judgments of those characters. I can't help but be left wondering whether the companies are really the immoral ones.