TLC: The Likely Candidate… for Product Placement

TLC, which ofcourse really stands for The Learning Channel, has plenty of do-it-yourself-type programs from Trading Spaces to What Not To Wear. With both reality and DIY elements, plenty of product placements can be found in almost every frame. In the process of building, shopping and sometimes just living, brands are thrown all over the place. Another likely vehicle for placement is cooking shows. Food brands that want to be recognized can simply pay to get their products placed in any cooking show or meal they want to be associated with. This method is targeted, allows for frequent appearances, and can help to establish a desired brand image.



Put these two vehicles together and what do you get? Take Home Chef: a reality/cooking show on TLC. In this show, Chef Curtis Stone (a tall, handsome, blonde Aussie I might add) enters a grocery store and picks out an unsuspecting shopper. After initially shocking the guest, Curtis comes up with a menu, buys the groceries, and goes home with them to cook them a dinner. Typically, Curtis chooses women who are cooking for a husband or boyfriend that they want to surprise. Not only is it fun to watch but there is product placement galore, in every episode.

Today’s episode was no exception. Like every episode, it began in Gelson’s supermarket; one that I’m assuming is regionally limited to the West Coast as each episode is set in one California city or another. Since Curtis and his guest are followed around the store by a camera crew it’s hard not to pick out the brand names on the shelves. Today, Tide laundry detergent, Pam cooking spray, several boxes of Betty Crocker dessert mixes, and Evian bottled water particularly stood out. Then there’s the ride home. Curtis always catches a ride home with the guest, making her car stand out. Today’s guest drove a white Land Rover… not bad. Not to mention all of the cars that were passed in the parking lot like the Jeep Cherokee and the Mitsubishi Spyder parked across from hers. Curtis then always has the guest take him to some sort of home store where he buys her some sort of kitchen appliance or tool. Today, the store was not shown prominently but in the past Crate and Barrel has been known to make an appearance.




When cooking the actual meal, this episode was a little bit different. Not many brand named foods were used, as the guest had a complete vegetable and herb garden in her backyard. The one brand that did standout in this episode, however, was C&H sugar, both granulated and powdered which were used for the Peach Melba dessert. Lastly, the guest used her blue Motorola Razr phone multiple times to call her husband and make sure the dinner would be a surprise. With similar formats for each episode, Take Home Chef poses several opportunities for Gelson’s, products placed on grocery store shelves, foods used to make the meal, cars, cell phones, home stores and appliances. Honestly, so much is placed in this show that sometimes I’m paying more attention to the brands constantly flashing across the screen than the progression of the show itself. And for that, I give both TLC and marketers props. If they can get me to watch Folger’s Coffee cans more closely than a cute, blonde, Australian chef… they must be doing something right. Take Home Chef airs Mon-Thurs at 5pm and 5:30pm with new episodes Friday at 7pm.