Product placement is nothing new to 24. For years fans of the show have been watching Jack Bauer tear ass around in his trusty Ford truck, or vid conference with inept officials thanks to Cisco. I’ve got no problem with subtle product placement, but after watching 24 Product Placements in 24 Minutes, I mean 24: Redemption last night, things just seem to have hit a new low. They haven’t topped the “It’s a HEMI!” line from the second Fantastic Four movie yet, but they came pretty damn close. From stopping mid-stream to shoot a Hyundai commercial, shoving phones sporting the Sprint logo into the camera lens, or the return of the Cisco telepresence suite, it’s just plain cartoonish. Product placement works best when its subtle people! Fingers crossed this kind of behaviour will not carry through the rest of season 7, or I’m going to end up tuning out pretty early.
