The sitcom that I watched to seek out product placement was “Seinfeld.”
The particular episode of “Seinfeld” that I watched was “The Junior Mint,”
which was episode twenty of season four which aired in 1993. During the course
of the show, I found a few products in certain scenes that were very easy to
point out and could have been used as a product placement technique of
advertising. Also, there was one element of this particular episode that was a
concrete example of product placement.
The episode starts out with Jerry telling George that he is
having a girl come over to his apartment on a date but he does not remember her
name from meeting her at the supermarket. Meanwhile, Elaine wants to see her
ex-boyfriend in the hospital who is planned to have a serious surgery. Elaine,
Jerry, and Kramer go to see her friend in the hospital and Kramer gets invited
to watch the surgery take place from a viewing deck along with observing
students. While the surgery was taking place, Kramer starts eating Junior
Mints. Kramer then tried forcing Jerry to eat one, but Jerry smacked the candy
out of his hand, causing the Junior Mint to land in the surgical wound of
Elaine’s ex-boyfriend. Jerry and Kramer fear that he may die since the surgeons
stitched the wound with the candy still in the body. Knowing the possibility of
death, George spends $1,900 on Elaine’s boyfriend’s paintings, hoping they
would go up in value once he dies. In the end, the boyfriend ended up being
fine and Jerry gets dumped for not remembering his date’s name.
Throughout the episode, there were four different
possibilities of product placement. When Jerry got back from the supermarket,
he gave Kramer a pair of gloves that he had asked Jerry to pick up for him.
Kramer then held the box up in the air while he thanked Jerry. Although the
brand on the box, Bluettes, was visible, it was only present for one second.
Another instance was when George wanted to watch a movie at Jerry’s apartment
because he felt lonely watching it as his own place. The title of the movie
George had rented, “Home Alone”, was spoken by George and Jerry two or three
times in about twenty seconds. The next possibility of product placement
occurred in the hospital room during the visiting of Elaine’s ex-boyfriend.
Jerry, without any relevance to the scene, pulled out a yo-yo from his pocket
and started to ‘yo-yo.’ The last possibility of product placement was the
placing of an Apple Mac Computer in the back corner of Jerry’s apartment.
Although it could be seen throughout the episode, it was placed off to the side
and none of the characters made reference to it. All four of these could
possibly be product placement, but there was no concrete evidence that the
characters were promoting the product through the content of the episode.
On the other hand, there was one very obvious product
placement in this episode- Junior Mints. To start, the episode is called, “The Junior Mint.” That alone is enough for a
case of product placement, but to further the evidence, it was the actual
Junior Mint that caused the main trouble for Jerry and Kramer in the episode
since they thought the candy would kill Elaine’s ex-boyfriend. Also, while
Jerry and Kramer were debating on telling Elaine what had happened during the surgery,
George asked Kramer why he would be eating Junior Mints during a surgery.
Kramer then said “Who’s going to turn down a Junior Mint? It’s chocolate, it’s
peppermint, it’s delicious. It’s very refreshing.” This line by Kramer was not
only funny, but it also promoted Junior Mints.
In conclusion, I think that this particular “Seinfeld”
episode had one very noticeable case of product placement. Naming the episode “The
Junior Mint,” having an actual Junior Mint play a very important role in the episode,
and having Kramer say his promoting line all proves product placement of Junior
Mints.
