Well, I must confess from the start of this post, that I am a fan of Eureka (the show on the Sci-Fi channel). I admit that it's not great Science Fiction, and the acting is not always the best, but it's good light-weight entertainment, and the special effects are pretty decent for a television show.
That said, they've started what I consider to be a disturbing trend.
Last week's show (week of August 5) there was a scene in the first fifteen minutes, in which a new character on the show is showing how they are now doing research for consumer oriented technologies. They have a man wearing a blank shirt. Zane (a character in the show) activates a machine and the logo for Degree Anti-Perspirant is projected on the shirt for a moment, and then coalesces into an embroidered logo as the person wearing it walks away.
Product placement... I get it. Degree is a sponsor for the show. No problem, right?
A little later in the show they go into a commercial. There is Zane, not the actor who portrays him, in his lab, extolling the virtues of Degree Anti-perspirant, interspersed with scenes from the show.
A commercial, shot on a set from the show, using clips from the show, and a character from the show. Doesn't that seem like it's crossing the line?
I mean, it made me watch it. We'd already picked up the remote control and started fast forwarding (thank you TiVo) and when we saw what looked like another scene from the show, we rewound and watched it. It did what it was supposed to do, but it just seems to me that the ethics are a bit sketchy.
What do you think?
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