Blog Assignment #6--6/21

I watched an episode of Seinfeld from season nine—“The Dealership.”  The plot of the episode was that Jerry is buying a new car from Elaine’s boyfriend.  George and Kramer come to the dealership with him; Kramer ends up going off to test drive a car with another salesman, while George, grumpy because he hasn’t eaten lunch, tries to hunt down some food.  While Jerry is in the process of buying the car, Elaine breaks up with her boyfriend, so Jerry has to get them back together so he can get a good deal on the car.

The main setting of the episode is the car dealership.  The dealership itself, European International, appears to have been made up for the episode.  However, the cars that they are selling are Saabs, which is a real car brand.  I didn’t really see any emblems on the cars shown in the episode, but one of the dealership’s mechanics had the word “SAAB” written on his uniform, and the name of the car Jerry was buying, the Saab 900, came up often.

Right outside the dealership, before the characters go inside, a York air conditioning system can be seen in the background.  I don’t think it is really product placement—the logo and brand name are not emphasized in any way and are often partially covered up by the characters and cars in front of them.  In addition, the characters don’t talk about or interact with the system at all.

Inside the dealership, there are a number of framed posters depicting high-end cars, such as Kronos and Porsche, with the brand name written in large, stylized text either above or below.  As with the York air conditioning system, these posters are not talked about or interacted with at all, and are often in the background hidden by the characters.  The posters appear to be present in order to enhance the set more than to advertise these cars.  Therefore, I would argue that this is not an example of product placement.

Arby’s is mentioned multiple times throughout the episode, first because Elaine’s boyfriend took her there for lunch (she had the corned beef), and then again at the end of the episode because George is eating a sandwich from there, presumably because they stopped off so he could finally get something to eat.  The logo is never seen; even when George is eating his Arby’s sandwich, no wrapper or bags are visible to the viewer.  I would say that this is an example of product placement.  Even though the logo is never seen and it’s only mentioned about three times, the way it’s talked about serves the same purpose as an advertisement does—it puts the idea of Arby’s in people’s heads.  I could very easily see people who enjoy eating at Arby’s going to Arby’s within the next week or two after seeing this episode.

The most blatant example of product placement in this episode is of Twix.  In George’s quest for food, he finds a vending machine.  When he finally scrounges together enough change (the machine won’t accept the crumpled dollar bill Jerry gave him), he buys a Twix bar.  However, the Twix gets stuck, and then by the time he grabs someone to help him get it out, a mechanic has taken it and the last remaining Twix behind it.  George confronts the mechanic, talks to a manager, and sets up a ridiculous candy bar lineup while trying to get a reimbursement and an apology.  Because Twix plays such a large role in George’s storyline in this episode, it is mentioned by name numerous times, there are close-ups of the wrapper, the viewer sees other characters eating Twix bars (even though without the wrapper they aren’t really recognizable as Twix), and George says twice that “Twix is the only candy bar with the cookie crunch.”  This is definitely product placement because the name Twix is said many, many times, the wrapper is shown, and the candy bar is described.  I would honestly be surprised if Mars didn’t have anything to do with this episode.

During the scenes involving the Twix, a lot of other candy bars are mentioned and shown as well.  When George is getting the Twix from the vending machine, a number of other candies and snacks are visible, including Sunkist pistachios, Snickers, M&Ms, Milk Duds, Snow Caps, and Mike and Ikes.  Later, when George is confronting the mechanic who took his Twix, the mechanic claims he’s eating a Fifth Avenue Bar.  When George talks to the manager about the mechanic stealing his Twix, Hershey, Skittles, Mounds, and Hundred Thousand Dollar/Hundred Grand bars are also mentioned.  I’m not really sure that I would consider these to be product placement.  Each of these candies is only either seen or named, not both.  In addition, the focus of these scenes is still on the Twix.