Entourage: Promoting Brands in the Fake Real Hollywood Scene

I don't know about you, but last night was an occasion I've been waiting months for: new episodes of Entourage. A continuation of season 3, the episode premiered after a 7 month hiatus on the normal Sunday 10pm timeslot on HBO. Guaging the popularity among college students, particularly apparent in our little Entourage "party" last night where almost 20 of us crammed into my neighbor's apartment living room to watch, it can be assumed that product placement within the show was exposed to many Gen Y viewers. On a side note, this return of one of my favorite shows has made me regret overlooking HBO when signing up for our cable plan earlier in the semester, an investment that may have been as, if not more, crucial than our DVR purchase.

Anyways, I was so excited for the premiere last night that I had forgotten to grab a pen and paper to jot down any product placement I spotted. And ofcourse there was no leaving in the middle of the show. So here are some placements that I recall strictly from memory. And if you think about it, my ability to retain them from last night's episode only goes to show how effective they were. First there was the Lakers basketball team and their home court the Staples Center in LA, which Vince and his "entourage" were shown attending as a birthday present from his new agent. Then ofcourse, Turtle sported his NY Yankees hat pretty much throughout the entire episode; a red one this time. As for Drama, he was cast in a new TV drama "The Towns". His subplot focused on the billboards for the show and his attempts to guage how much attention they were receiving and if passer-byers would recognize him from them. The product placement for this instance was the NBC logo placed on each of "The Towns" billboards and ads throughout the show. Lastly, the episode ended with Vince's birthday party, sponsored by Victoria's Secret, a brand name that was shown prominently and multiple times throughout the scene. Not to mention two of the famous VS Angels posing with Vince at the party. Many will recognize them from real-life VS commercials and print ads. Skyy Vodka was also present at the party, with its blue bottles shown being poured, labels out ofcourse.

Some of the brands shown more discretely were a Smuckers jar at the breakfast table and both Visa and Mastercards which Turtle maxxed out. However, the big players for the night were definitely the Lakers, Victoria's Secret, Skyy Vodka and the other sponsors of the party. For more episode and program information on Entourage, HBO has an entire site dedicated to the largely popular show. Unfortunately, there's no free video streaming of the episodes on this site. Guess you better have HBO on Demand or at least a friend who has it if you want to catch last night's premiere: a lesson I learned the hard way.