If you've been watching The Apprentice -- and a few of us around here definitely have -- you may be tiring of the perpetual product placements. While in its original season it seemed as though DaimlerChrysler (NYSE:DCX) was the only company to really bank on the series, it seems like every new episode this season features another huge company or two showcasing their skills.
Last week found some televised praise going to both parcel shipping specialist UPS (NYSE:UPS) and Liberty Media's (NYSE:L) QVC Network. Moving 100 million items last year, QVC rang up $4 billion in sales from folks watching the popular home shopping channel and snatching up the featured items.
Earlier this week the previously taped episode was given a more relevant slant when some of the show's contestants -- and The Donald himself -- had a live stint on QVC.
They sold copies of the first season's new DVD set. Then they tried to rewrite history by pitching the same two items that the competing teams sold during the show's fifth episode. It should have been a golden moment for Liberty Media and QVC. The popular show on General Electric's (NYSE:GE) NBC was no doubt bringing a huge audience over to QVC's electronic storefront, and those It Works cleaning blocks and DeLonghi panini grills were going to sell briskly.
Yet there is something to be said for the forgiving graces of having months to edit a show and snip away unwanted morsels. Anything can and will happen on live television. For QVC this came when the It Works units sold so quickly that the company resorted to taking preorders instead.
While simple supply and demand issues will always create inventory outages in retailing, it must have been painful to resort to this in front of a huge viewing audience that was about to be convinced that QVC was all about instant gratification with eager sales reps and revved-up UPS trucks ready to deliver the goods.
Those who placed orders after the first batch ran out were told that their orders wouldn't ship out until December. December? Yes, two months away. While one can always hope that it was simply QVC erring on the conservative side, it must have given some viewers -- the type who get antsy when their Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) orders haven't been shipped out the next day -- pause.
Live television can reveal too much sometimes. Just ask Janet and Justin.
Have you been watching the second season of The Apprentice? Did you catch the QVC special on Monday night? Is product placement becoming too distracting, or does it fit right at home in a business-related show? All this and more -- in the Trump's Apprentice discussion board. Only on Fool.com.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz probably watches too much television these days. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story.
