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Drive By Sponsorship at the CBC
TOist is not so innocent as to believe that we live in a televisual world devoid of product placement. But we did still think our lovably dorky public broadcaster was gently immune to it. Silly us. Kia has its grubby little fingers all over the mothership’s latest Hockey-replacement show, The Tournament. It’s no coincidence that the characters work at a Kia dealership, and that the rink’s are covered with Kia ads, and that the show’s site has fake ads that lead you to the real Kia site.
We know the corpse is facing hard times. But couldn’t they just have Peter recycle his ties every once in a while, or have a bake sale. Everyone could buy glowing orb sugar cookies and then the broadcaster wouldn’t have to get in bed with Kia. And we could all eat cookies.
Incidentally, the other fake ad on the site is a commercial for the funeral company on the show. They give you a faux number to call, and do not even provide a gimmicky answering machine message! In the key of Six Feet Under. Except not really a parody, because parodies are generally funny.