Product Placement

During the past few years, I’ve become quite aware of products shown in movies and television programs. This has probably gone on for some time, but I’m not a very observant person and don’t always take note of things. But lately there is so much being written about it, and I really noticed it in “American Idol” the few times I watched. There was coca cola sitting around everyplace. You see people eating certain cereals, juices, bread – you name it, it’s been featured someplace. We get so used to it we don’t pay any attention, but you wonder how much money is made from these placements and by whom.

I’ve written about the birds that come to my deck that I feed all the time. I love them and they seem to like my deck. It all started in the winter of 2008 when this one little sparrow would sit in the snow looking in at me. So I started feeding him and he came every day. He was always alone and I felt a kinship with him. I named him Larry – I name all my animals Larry. That started when Cindy had a big dog named Larry that was a wonderful dog that we all loved. I even have Larry the dog in my profile picture on Facebook. I keep my birdseed in a container that you can see through to the birdseed, but I feed them in a big pot that’s filled with dirt. The seed is on top of the dirt naturally. There’s a squirrel around here that comes up on my deck and eats the birdseed. I throw empty plastic milk bottles at him, but he still comes.The other day, I put a sack over my birdseed container because the squirrel kept crawling up on the chair and looking at the birdseed. I think he was trying to figure out a way in. So I put a Safeway sack over it as I save the sacks after I shop at Safeway. I then noticed one of my little birds that I feed, sitting on top of the sack and just looking around at the world. Now many of the birds use the sack as a sort of viewpoint where they can sit and see all over. I managed to get a picture of one of the birds which I used for this blog. And then it struck me! Why couldn’t I use that Safeway picture as an advertisement for Safeway and do blogs about it. Of course, Safeway would have to pay me for my services. I would have to change the sack frequently as the birds seem to like to poop on it – I think they like to poop every place. I’m going to have to give this some thought. I’ll bet Safeway has never been approached by someone like me with such a good marketing idea. I could write blogs about going grocery shopping and what sales Safeway had that day. I’d have to have the picture put on a white sweat shirt so it would be noticeable. I don’t know what I’d charge for my services so I’d probably have to get an agent. I must stop now as I’m getting excited! I’ll have to settle down and think seriously about all of this.

After thinking about it last night, I heard about Ted Williams who was homeless and jobless and stood on a corner in Ohio someplace with a sign asking for money. Someone who knew about radio announcing stopped one day and took a video of him making announcements. His voice was beautiful, and this guy put the video on the internet where it got a gazillion hits. He now has many job offers and has been on every television show imaginable. So maybe that’s the way to go although I can’t see myself doing that. But it’s something to fall back on.