Improvised iPod Placement on The Apprentice?

So I was catching up on my Apprentice episodes after getting back from vacation and I noticed something interesting in the episode from two weeks ago. The two teams were competing to see who could set up the best Nescafe promotion in 48 hours. They each hired event planners to help them set up the actual promotion in downtown NYC (which ate up most of their $75,000 budgets), but they also had to come up with their own prize giveaway ideas.

One team decided to give away $10,000 cash, but the long-haired hippee guy (Danny) from the other team had the bright idea of giving away iPods instead. He seemed to come up with the idea on the spot and another team member even piped in (wrongly) with “The Minis are only $300!”. The team seemed to discuss the idea for a couple of minutes and then someone inexplicably said “Ok, so the bottom line is that we’ll give away HP iPods”.

HP iPods?

Who would think to say that on their own? I rewound the scene several times on the Tivo to see who said it and the voice appeared to come from off-camera. It sounded like Danny’s voice but Danny was on camera and his lips weren’t moving.

Fast-forward to the promotion itself. The Apprentice team put up signs in their promotion booth saying “Win an iPod from HP”.

So here’s my question: How exactly did HP get injected into this episode of the Apprentice? The team clearly seemed to come up with the iPod idea on their own, but by the time the promotion ran, the HP brand was all over it. If I had to guess, here is what I bet happened:

1. Long-haired hippee guy comes up with iPod giveaway idea.
2. Apprentice producers go to Apple and ask them if they’d like pay for iPod product placement on the show (knowing it’s going to appear on the show anyway).
3. Apple says “Thanks but no thanks.”
4. Apprentice producers, perhaps already having a relationship with HP, remember that HP distributes an iPod too and approach them with the idea.
5. HP says yes.
6. Mentions of the “HP iPod” are dubbed into scene in post-production and the Apprentice collects product placement fees.

I wonder how often this happens in the world of reality TV. I watch an unhealthy amount of it, but I’ve never seen anything as seemingly improvised as this. Usually product placements are labeled clearly as such and scripted well in advance.

Headline Writing 101

Lesson #1: Don’t scare the hell out of your audience with a poor choice of words.

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ESPN Wants Your Thoughts

One of my co-worker homies at ESPN headquarters, Kareem Mayan, runs his own blog over at Reemer.com and he would like your suggestions regarding subscription content on ESPN.com. Kareem was one of the driving forces behind ESPN Fantasy Football League Manager, and his excellent work is one of the main reasons the product is doing so well this year. Also, can I just mention really quick how much butt I’m kicking in the blogger league?

Copious amounts.

Anyway, if you’re an ESPN.com user and you have some suggestions for us, head on over to Reemer’s place and post your thoughts. With Kareem working on ESPN Insider now, expect a lot of great stuff coming down the pipe in short order.

ABC News Redesigns

I’m 30,000 feet above Seattle right now heading to Vegas with Keith, Jason, and The Wolf and all I can think about is what’s launching tomorrow. By the time you read this, we will have launched a brand new ABCNews.com. Several months in the making and several years since the last major redesign, the new ABCNews is the latest major media site in the Disney family to jump on board the real-world web standards gravy train.

A collaborative effort between the ABCNews team in New York City, the Disney Internet Group in Seattle, and a few outside consultancies, the new ABCNews.com is a refreshing reminder that dramatic change is possible in organizations of any size. I feel lucky to have worked on this project and wanted to share as much as possible about what went on behind the scenes to bring you what we now believe to be one of the best news sites on the web.
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ESPNndependent – Life After the Butterfly

Earlier this month, ESPN and MSN parted ways after their multi-year deal expired and was not renewed. I am not a spokesman for ESPN so I of course cannot comment, but I did want to point readers in the direction of a great pair of interviews on the subject. In one interview, Staci Kramer of the USC Online Journalism Review talks to John Skipper, Executive Vice President at ESPN and one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. In the other, Kramer interviews Ross Levinsohn, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Fox Sports Interactive Media.

The interviews provide a nice view into the differing strategies of two online sports franchises; one on the way into a deal and one on the way out of one.