Product placement has been around as long as, well, as long as there have been products. Often times it's more effective than conventional advertising. Afterall, who wouldn't want to drink the same beer as our big or small screen hero? I myself have talked about the product placement in video games. Well here's the opposite. Generally, I spend my nights in either watching TV or playing games. On Monday night, the show 'Big Bang Theory' had a storyline which centered around the main characters having a weekly 2V2 Halo tournament. Now, while neither Microsoft or XBox were mentioned by name, the white wireless controllers were unmistakeable. In the meantime, I had to wonder if I should be excited or offended. The show is a look at the daily lives of four geeky science types who are stereotipically intelligent yet socially inept. It should come as no surprise that they would be portrayed as avid gamers. Also quite stereotyped is the young hot chick across the hall who has no idea what Halo is but is instantly good at it. (Go figure!) The second sighting this week was on another favorite show, South Park. Wednesday's episode concerned two of the main characters playing Guitar Hero III. Not that big a deal until you consider that the producers of these shows are assuming alot of gamers are fans. The proof was in the enourmous amount of advertising during the shows for 'Assasin's Creed.' One of the 'Creed' spots ran so long that I had to make sure I didn't accidently change channels. The total of three commercials for that one game probably ran upwards of two minutes each during a first run episode of a highly popular show. That's a lot of money and a sizable bet on advertising dollars. I hope the gamble works.