For the past couple of years or so, I’ve been becoming more and more aware of brand placements during television shows. While the most obvious seem to be for car companies, lately that focus has been on “Bing” for some networks. In the middle of a scene, the plot will turn into a search engine commercial for Bing and as this becomes more glaringly obvious, it always becomes more annoying. This may be because I’m a little too obsessed with my television shows and don’t appreciate impromptu advertisements, but I suspect it’s mostly my avid loyalty to Google that sparks my resentment.
This is just my personal opinion, but I feel that Google is such a strong brand that direct competitors don’t really stand much of a chance unless they find a new angle to approach the market. Proof of this obstacle is that Google has even become an unofficial verb. Maybe if one could use the phrase “I’ll bing that”, (and have others actually understand) I’d appreciate them more, but right now, trying to be a replacement for Google seems slightly unrealistic to me.