Masterch....MasterProductPlacement

Ok, so I was doing my daily troll of the Sydney Morning Herald and came across this interesting article. Masterchef was definitely the hit show of last year...Channel 10's runaway success. And of course, the return of the second season means only one thing. No, it's not a lot of pretentious and cliched comments about how it's a fight to be crowned Masterchef (though it definitely doesn't disappoint in this regard), but it's a chance for Channel 10 to cash in, and cash in big time.

I accept that advertising is just a way of life. It pays for the show to be made, it pays for the fact that the show is free to watch, and it pretty much makes the earth rotate on its axis. I can put up with ad breaks, because they don't pretend to be something they're not. They are there to advertise to you.

It's what the media types are calling 'integration' that is annoying me. Integration is pretty much just in-show product promotion - product placement. Next time you watch Masterchef, notice how all the appliances they use are Sunbeam. They use ingredients provided by Coles. Paper towels are Handee Ultra. Campbell's is involved. Fonterra, one of the largest dairy companies whose brands include Mainland and TipTop is there too.

An executive at Channel 10 says "the type of integration we're achieving on Masterchef is subtle and clever". Clever maybe, but not subtle. What is subtle about the camera holding on the Sunbeam logo for a few seconds? This type of in-show product placement is supposed to build brand association, so that I'm more likely to go out and shop at Coles. But do you know what? It actually puts me off buying any of these products. It infuriates me that they think we're stupid enough that seeing these brands being used will make us say "oh, they're using it so they must be good". We're not stupid. We can make an intelligent decision ourselves.

And do you know what my intelligent decision is? Not to watch Masterchef.

Got my goat?