In this scene, Liz Lemon (the protagonist and head writer of the fictional show within 30 Rock) addresses her boss, a ‘Vice President’ of television programming at NBC (a subsidiary of General Electric) who wants her to integrate a product placement for a GE product into her show. This scene starts off with an ironic, self-referential quote that is so quintessentially 30 Rock:

 

Liz Lemon: “We are not your shills [accomplice of a hawker who acts as an enthusiastic customer to entice or encourage others to purchase a given product], Jack.”

 

Liz Lemon (and thus, Tina Fey, as the head writer of 30 Rock) has no desire to simply be a platform to which an advertisement. She wants to be paid by Snapple, but wants to integrate it into her show as part of the show by making fun of it, using the iconic self-referential humor that is classic 30 Rock. The product placement here is WAY over the top and makes fun of all different types of commercials:

 

“Diet? no way! It tastes just like regular (marketing to dieters (mainly women) who want to indulge in the real thing but are watching their weight.”

 

 

The Plum-o-granate plug by Frank, the resident ‘bro’ and goofball, most closely emulates the ‘buddy’ advertising trope, where one guy says something along the lines of ‘dude, you’ve got to try [x product], it’s, like, totally awesome!’

 

 

The classic advertisement example on which the show plays, however, is Cerie’s (the attractive blond woman on the show) saying ‘I only date guys who drink Snapple.’ Using attractive women to sell products to men is a tactic that has been around for decades, and in this case, it sells Snapple by helping men unconsciously (or consciously) come to the conclusion ‘if I drink Snapple, I will be more attractive to beautiful woman like this character and a more appealing candidate for boyfriend (or have a better chance of sleeping with a blonde woman like Cerie).’

 

 

*Community, another television sitcom, also uses product placement. For more information, please click here.