Monday, November 2, 2015

Everybody Loves Raymond and Product Placement (Blog Assignment #6)


For this blog I watched the first episode of season four of Everybody Loves Raymond.  This episode was named the “Boob Job” episode. In this episode Ray and Debra go to their children’s schools PTA meeting. During the meeting Debra and Ray meet a mother who just had a breast enlargement surgery. This leads to Debra wondering if she needs breast implants. When she bring the idea up to Ray she receives a displeasing response. As the episode goes on Ray leaves for a week long business trip and as he returns Debra has created a test to see if Ray wanted her to get the surgery. Ray fails the test terribly but by the end of the episode the conflict has turned to Ray being self-conscious about his body.

Now that I have summarized the episode I will get to the main part of this blog. The purpose of this blog was to watch a sitcom and try to find clearly placed products in the show. After the products are found we must discuss how they relate to product placement. During the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond I found only two name brands clearly displayed.

The first was Golf Digest which is a magazine which is dedicated to the game of golf and golf products. During the series it is made know that Ray is a big golf enthusiast. During this episode Ray is shown choosing an edition of Golf Digest out of a pile of unmarked magazines. Also later in the episode another edition of Golf Digest is shown in Ray and Debra’s bathroom. Although Golf Digest or even golf was never mentioned or discussed during the episode Golf Digest was clearly displayed on multiple of occasions. This is an example of product placement.

As the last product was more specific to the specific to the episode the next product is associated with the entire along with the episode.  During this episode only two drinks with labels are displayed. These drinks are Orange Sunkist and Canadian Ginger Ale. Both of these drinks are made by the RC Beverage Company. RC Beverage Company paid to put their products in the show.

If one was to watch a season or two of Everybody Loves Raymond they would see a common company placing their products in episodes. Ray’s favorite drink was a Canadian Ginger Ale and he drank a Ginger Ale in a majority of the shows episodes. Ray drinking a Canadian Ginger Ale created promotion for RC Beverage and their product. For the series the money RC Beverage Company helped them with production coasts.

Everybody Loves Raymond was on for Six Seasons and for each of these seasons their viewer ratings were high. This is why Companies like Golf Digest and RC Beverage would pay to have their products places in the series’ episodes.  

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