COM/WRI 212 - Blog #6

Arrested Development’s “Motherboy XXX” is the episode I watched to see product placement in a non-animated sitcom first hand. Arrested Development follows a fictional family called the Bluths. The Bluths are wealthy, dysfunctional family who lost everything and one son, Michael Bluth, was force to keep his family together.  “Motherboy XXX” is about the aftermath of Buster's losing his hand from a “loose seal” as well as Tobias looking for work in the acting field. Embarrassed by her son’s missing hand, Lucille recruits George Michael, Michael’s son, to compete in the 30th annual "Motherboy" contest with her. On the other side of the town, Tobias meets with acting coach, Carl Weathers to talk about possible acting jobs for him. The episode “Motherboy XXX” only had two product placements but they were two huge product placements.

            The first product placement is VERY obvious! Tobias meets Carl Weathers in a Burger King. They talked about how great the fast food restaurant is and how they are getting money for shooting a scene from their television show. Arrested Development is known for having running jokes throughout the show as well as tongue in cheek humor so this direct line of product placement while obvious still makes a jab at people who take product placement deals. Tobias comes back to Carl Weathers in the Burger King and true to Arrested Development nature their product placement hilarious. A sign for Burger King’s Angus Burger is in the background of the shot and with the way the shot is the “g” in Angus seems to be blocked. This makes burger not so appealing but still calls for laughs. Later within the episode, Michael, George Michael, and Buster are shown drinking out of Burger King cups just to round out the Burger King product placement. While everything is happening in Burger King for Tobias, Lucille and George Michael head off to Motherboy 30 (XXX) where another product placement is placed.

            Lucille and George Michael walk into the hotel where Motherboy is being held and see another mother son combo in sailor outfits. This causes Lucille to rent a room so they can change their outfits. While checking into the room, Lucille states her purpose for staying was Motherboy and this is where the second product placement. The hotel receptionist states that it is the mother son competition instead of the 70’s rock band with the same title. The Narrator also comments that the show is legally obligated to make a distinction between the band and the pageant. I thought when I watched the episode, Motherboy was real but after watching the episode multiple times I realized that one of the band members looks oddly familiar. I did some researching and it turned out that the band Motherboy does not exist. This scene from the episode was just a product placement on the show itself. During the pitching of the series, a band with the same name of the show sued the producers for copyright infringement. This is Arrested Development’s way talking about the issue and saying how they got through it in a funny way.

            This leads to the final but indirect product placement, which is the show’s title. When googling the name of the show, you will get multiple sources. One will be for the show but they other will be for the band with the same name. This allows for the band or the show to get more people to get more popularity because they googled “Arrested Development” and wanted to see the difference between the two.