A comment about advertising

Tonight, a new episode of Monk aired. It was a pretty good episode. One thing I noticed: Natalie has a new car, her fifth car since she started on the show in January 2005. That's not even four years. So far, she's had a Jeep Grand Cherokee, a Buick Lucerne, a Ford Escape, an Audi, and now a Nissan Sentra. In other words, product placement run amok. Maybe not the Jeep, but definitely the Buick and the Audi, which Natalie, working for the very cheap Monk, would certainly not be able to afford otherwise. The Buick actually was part of an aggressive ad campaign by Buick and USA, which lasted long enough to permanently make its mark on the show and the show's website, but has since been abandoned. Another phenomenon I've noticed: on YouTube, they've gone as far as putting ads in the videos themselves. And I don't mean in the same style as TV commercials. I mean pop-up ads that actually obscure part of the video. I HATE THOSE. I never watch those videos, if I can help it. Which I usually can. Even if it means I can't watch the only source of those video clips on the internet. It's just terrible. So, knowing that even though, as both I and my parents work for newspapers and thus advertising is where the money for my and my family's paychecks come from, I still feel compelled to say this: These guys have gone too far. Enough is enough.