No Reservations about product placement?

February 9, 2010 • 12:57 am • POSTED BY Jim Walls

When Trump trots out a CEO of some has-been company like Sears on Celebrity Apprentice, we don’t bat an eye as the suit launches into some canned speech about how Craftsman has always stood for quality and value and blah-blah-blah while Larry Wilcox and Dr. Ruth run off to write a commercial about crescent wrenches. I guess we just expect this sort of 80s gilt gaudiness from Trump. I mean, it’s his brand, and he’s totally being, as we say, on brand.

But when the Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain does the same thing for a credit card, oh man is it awkward—as witnessed here on the recent Istanbul episode (the clip in question comes at around the 3:15 mark):

For anyone who watches Bourdain’s show regularly, it just seems like something the guy would never sign off on—unless it’s an inside joke to his viewers, sort of a knowing wink of “you wouldn’t believe these guys dropped a six-figure check in my lap.”