memoirsofageisha.jpgJust yesterday, I wrote a post on TV Squad about product placement on television, and the efforts of two major Hollywood unions to stop it in its tracks (or, at the very least, siphon off some of the profits). Then this morning, I got a tip that there was a bit of eggregious promotional crossover on the show Medium last night. Apparently, two characters on the NBC show had a conversation about going to see the film Memoirs of a Geisha. Cut to a commercial – for Memoirs of a Geisha.

The thing about this that's interesting to me is that it's not a straight move of vertically-integrated masturbation – Geisha is a Sony film, and NBC makes movies through Universal. Still, it's not hard to see that some kind of deal went on here. Does this kind of thing bother you? The commenters on my TV Squad post said that they'd actually *rather* see in-script product placement than have to watch commericals. What if, instead of cutting to the Geisha advert, the writers on a show like Medium took a kickback to write a 45 second scene following the characters into the movie theater? It might be a distraction from the show's narrative, but it probably wouldn't be more distracting than a string of 6-10 ads for different products. It also might be a way to see unadulterated footage of the film, without the decptive packaging of the trailer. What do you think?