If you’ve watched syndicated reruns of sitcom How I Met Your Mother lately, you might have been startled to see advertisements for very current movies such as Bad Teacher and Zookeeper in episodes that originally aired as early as 2006, long before those flicks were made. The photos here, for instance, are from the second-season episode titled “Swarley,” which originally aired Nov. 6, 2006 — more than four years before Bad Teacher hit theaters. So… what exactly is going with this phenomenon? EW investigated, and here’s the scoop.Turns out that 20th Television — the studio distributor behind Mother — has been selling promotional spots in syndicated episodes to wring even more money out of the sitcom’s already rich syndication deals. Specifically, the feat is accomplished by a partnership with a company, SeamBI, which stands for Seamless Brand Integration and is responsible for digitally altering old episodes with new products and brands.
Read more about this at EW
Source: EW
I don't really watch HIMYM reruns (Have the DVDs), but this just seems annoying. And messes with continuity. And WTF at advertising Jason's movie on his own show!
ReplyDeleteThis really sucks, but what can you do. Blatant product placement really brings down a shows credibility in my view.
ReplyDeleteBut like the article says, it's not the show themselves doing it - It's the studio.
ReplyDeleteReally? What effect does this have on the show's content itself? I mean, they're just replacing products that were already there to begin with... so how does it alter the credibility?
ReplyDeleteIn How I Met Your Mother the timeline is almost always parallel to the real life, then if in a episode set in the 2006 you see the ad for a movie that will be released in 2011, it alters the credibility of the show.
ReplyDeleteAnother small credability issue. "Hello Marshall, aren't you on TV, trying to hook up with Cameron Diaz?" (;
ReplyDeleteHa! Great point. My guess is that his part has been cleverly edited out.
ReplyDeleteThat's just fucking gross. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's weird Oo I'm still used to shows trying to avoid too much advertisment. But yah, as it was said, it's not the show but the network. And I'm wondering ... do the creators of the show even get asked or do they HAVE to agree to this?
ReplyDeletePart of me is disgusted by this, the other part is actually kind of impressed, in the DVR world that we live in this is kinda brilliant. If I have have to have in-program advertising (which like it or not is a requirement due to dvr/internet) i would take this over Capt.Awesome stopping a episode of Chuck to tell us about how awesome his new car is.
ReplyDeleteI can give the same explanation without creating an entire article to do so. Ready? Here goes...
ReplyDeletehttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/_snss6u0-WRI/TFBkJLM0njI/AAAAAAAADc0/Fd8ATNU7A-w/s1600/greed-money.jpg
Oh I know, but regardless of who does it, its still the same result.
ReplyDeleteLOL.
ReplyDelete