Ask Matt: April 30

Question: Bones has always been one of the worst offenders of "embedded advertising," but a recent episode reached a new level of ridiculous. Sure, I'll buy that everyone on the show drives a Toyota, but the "Look at my fancy GPS! And I get sports scores!" conversation between Booth and Sweets had me rolling my eyes and saying "Seriously?" I can deal with the Toyota promotion on Modern Family, where everyone drives them but doesn't constantly talk about all the awesome features of their cars, so why is Bones so in your face about it? Who makes the decisions for such obnoxious advertising within shows, and why is it worse on some shows than others? Are we likely to see more embedded advertising since more people are DVRing shows and fast forwarding through commercials — Alex F
Matt Roush: I didn't see this particular episode, but I can't say I'm surprised. Product placement has become more obvious and intrusive in this DVR age, and some do it better than others. Any time you feel like you're watching an ad instead of a show, it's not a good thing for the show — and most times not the advertiser, because it rarely breeds good will. But in many cases this is the cost of doing business and staying alive in this new marketplace, so the answer to your question is yes, it's likely to get worse before it gets better, if it ever does.

Source: TV Guide
Tipster: Lysaleelee