Rachel Ray: Queen of Branded Entertainment

So last week I explored the idea of cooking shows and DIY programs as a great place for companies to place their products. They can easily be incorporated into the recipe of project depending if the content matches, and they be displayed continuously and in a positive helpful light throughout the process. Last week, we talked about Curtis Stone and his cooking show Take Home Chef and all of the regular opportunities for placement throughout the show. This week, I used Rachel Ray. From cooking shows to travel shows to cookbooks her own talk show, Rachel Ray is all over the place these days. Whether she's promoting certain ingredients or recommending particular restaurants and dishes, Rachel is surrounded by brand names.

On today's episode of the Rachel Ray show, a combination of both cooking and lifestyle topics, a couple segments stood out as particularly branded. In one segment, Rachel had rapper and actor LL Cool J as a guest. Just by being there, LL promoted himself. Not that his attempts to promote his upcoming album and newly released book "LL Cool J's Platinum Workout" didn't help. LL also sported a Yankee hat, mentioned his favorite movie Scarface and favorite rap song Rapper's Delight, adding a coolness factor and celebrity association to the items. At the end of the segment, LL and Rachel faced off in a game of "Strip Air Hockey," nothing too controversial though. Throughout the game the side of the air hockey table reading BMI Gaming along with its Web site was prominently displayed.

In the last segment, Rachel cooked up a healthy meal, as she always ends the show. Before cooking, she promoted the Healthy Snack of the Day, "Grandpa Po's Original" Crunchy Organic Popcorn Snack with Soybeans. The actual meal she made however, was a "Sorta Soba Noodle Bowl" based on Tokyo Cafe's version of the Soba Noodle Bowl. Ofcourse she had to mention the NYC restaurant. Within the recipe each ingredient was shown in its container, label facing out. Unfortunately the channel was blurry on my TV and I couldn't jot them down quick enough, but among the branded ingredients were some sliced carrots, whole wheat pasta, chili powder, coreander and cayan pepper. With guest stars and two cooking segments almost daily on her morning talk show, Rachel Ray takes advantage of every opportunity to brand-name-drop. Good for us and good for the placed brands. Call it product placement, call it branded entertainment, call it shameless name dropping, or call it just plain Rachel. Any way you put it it beats those intrusive 30-second commercials that we usually use to pour ourselves a cup of coffee anyway.