Product Placement in "Biggest Loser"

I'm a huge fan of the show "Biggest Loser," and I watch every Tuesday. The past two Tuesdays, I've noticed very UN-subtle product placement. In one episode, a contestant is talking about the difficulty of the workouts while drinking water. However, instead of showing her face while she's talking, the shot is a close up of a Brita faucet filter. I laughed at the sight; the shot was not brief, but it took up the whole screen during the majority of her dialogue. The next week, one of the trainers was talking to another contestant about how to curb cravings. Apparently, the way to do so is to chew Extra brand gum; the way they were presenting it, no other flavored gum would even come close to working.

As I'm sitting in my living room (I got to go home this weekend!) and watching TV while doing this assignment, a commercial came on for the new movie "Blindside." It's about a football player, but the first thing that drew my eye was that we was wearing the athletic apparel Under Armour. It's not at all difficult to find these examples of product placement.

It's amazing how TV shows and movies find ways to advertise as part of the story. This is very obviously part of the capitalist theory, and I think that, though inevitable, we as consumers should be aware of this to make our own decisions on what WE want to buy.

This isn't the exact scene I was talking about, but it's another very similar (and from another season!)