New Advertisements on Old TV Shows

The practice of inserting digital advertisements for current products into older television programs is not all that new but it’s still in an infant stage. In fact, it seems that there’s only one company that has developed a niche for digital product placement. Seamless Brand Integration can place ads or signs for current products into reruns of popular TV shows that originally aired a few years ago.

It’s been well documented on the Internet that the studio responsible for How I Met Your Mother has been a big user of this technology. Some viewers don’t appreciate this move but I think it’s a smart idea and I also think that we’re going to see more of this type of product placement. I've already seen some examples of shows making room, if you will. Check out this screen capture from a 2012 episode of 30 Rock:

I noticed this blank screen when watching this episode instantly on Netflix the other day. I’d be willing to bet that when a rerun of this episode eventually makes it to WGN or some other cable network, we’ll see an advertisement on that blank television.