Boy Meets World

This weekend, I decided to watch Boy Meets World. This was my favorite show when I was younger and still makes my top list today. However, when I view it now I have a much different perspective on the program.

Since being a communications major, I pay a lot more attention to details within television programs and movies. I notice product placement and advertisements. Things I didn't think I paid much attention to before.

This holds true to Boy Meets World as well. I had no idea Yahoo advertised on that show at all until this weekend. The magnets on the refrigerator and stickers on the bulletin boards were all advertising for Yahoo (or most of them at least). It always surprises me how they sneak little things like that onto the show.

Product placements connects very well with the rhetorical nature of TV. The viewers are receiving a "gift" for watching the program, and thus, they are responsible for paying back the producers by buying the products advertised on the programs. I personally think this idea is a little ridiculous, but I understand their thinking none the less.

So, the producers place ads within the show anyway they can. All the products for example might be Coca Cola or Kellogg's brand. Product placement is important to the commercial industry because people can not "fast forward" through the show in order to skip the advertisements. Any way these programs can influence the consumers to spend money, they will do it.