[DeuceKicker]

I work for a product placement company, though not in the PP department, so I’ll try to tackle these.

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Obviously there is some product placement on The Office - Second Life, Staples, etc. But also it has to fit into the story. How does that work? Does The Office approach Staples and Office Max, and say "Hey we have a bunch of lines about a big competitor, it can be you, or the other guy", then they bid on it?
Or what about in Family Guy, when they're going to Olive Garden and Lois says "Me likey breadsticks! Me likey breadsticks!". Is that paid for? If Family Guy wants to do the joke do they have to ask permission from Olive Garden? If so, do they go ahead and ask for some money at the same time?

[/ QUOTE ] Generally, the productions services, prop, and wardrobe departments of a show will contact the product placement company that handles that client. The PP company will give approval on the client’s behalf to use or mention the product, and supply product if needed.

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Seems like a lot of negotiation would have to happen if you come up with the joke on Tues and film on Thurs. or something. Then again with Family Guy you could just stick the joke into any episode. But let's say it's a similar situation with Friends and Pottery Barn. But it will only fit in that episode. Do they do some quick negotiation?

[/ QUOTE ]Yes, there can be some last-minute scrambling to get approval from the client, then get the product, signage, etc… to production. A mention in an animated series should be much easier, because you only need to send over a few pages of script to be approved.

As far as bidding for exposure—no, that usually doesn’t happen for straight product placement. There is a sub-set of PP, which is called Branded Integration (maybe other PP firms call it something different, but everyone is doing it now, as this is where the industry is moving). An example of BI is when I. Robot needed a futuristic car for Will Smith. IIRC, Audi and Lexus were both interested in having some of their more out-there concept cars featured in the movie and the bidding was pretty heavy.

AFAIK, movies and TV shows cannot use or mention a product without the parent company’s permission (probably because of the copyright issues that CDS mentioned up-thread). So if The Office wants to mention Staples, and the line is, “Our paper is better than that crappy stuff Staples sells.” Staples could refuse to allow them to mention their company in that way. Obviously if the usage is neutral or positive, most companies are glad for the free exposure. If the placement is negative, they’ll refuse and the production’s art department has to make fake packaging etc… for a fictitious product.

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And finally, does any of the product placement money go to the writers? If not do the studio heads come down and say "you have to fit Target into this episode". Can the writers say no? Or do the studio heads say "Extra $1k for everyone any time you fit any of these companies into any episode."?

[/ QUOTE ]No, they don’t get paid, and I vaguely recall hearing some word around the office that script writers were starting to grumble. Technically, purposely sliding Target into the script could be considered ad-writing, not creative writing (I’m sure I’m bungling the terms, but in the industry there is a difference).

For generic PP, no money is changing hands. The productions benefit by only having to deal with a few PP companies to get props, signage, and approval.