Sopranos Product Placement Watch, Season Six, Episode Seven

Posted by: on May 01

All you had to do was see the name of this episode—”Luxury Lounge“—and know it was gonna be stuffed with product and brand references.

And it was.

Viceroy. Luxe beachside (so long as “beachside” means “across the street from the beach”) boutique hotel joint in Santa Monica, where Christopher falls off the wagon and otherwise fails to charm Ben Kingsley.
Egregiousness: 5. Lots of onscreen time, name’s mentioned semi-prominently. But little of it seems over-the-top gratuitous. (Compare this to the show in Season 5 in which Tony moves into the Plaza and grins at the view of Central Park.)

Oris. Ben Kingsley makes off with a fistful at the Luxury Lounge, after lengthy presentation by the young women manning the booth.
Egregiousness: 8.5 “Or the classic stainless Chrono?” Why yes—Ben will take two!

iRiver. Of course, a flash-drive based audio player would be in an awards’ show luxury lounge …
Egregiousness: 8. … but do they have to read off the spec sheet? “20 gigs in a tiny package.”

Cingular. Unmentioned but a loving, almost full-screen shot of the logo in the Luxury Lounge scene.
Egregiousness: 7. They haven’t done much with logos this year—and this is not the first time Cingular has shown up this season.

Stila. Cosmetic brand has its own booth at the lounge.
Egregiousness: 2. The men don’t hang out there, and the camera passes over it quickly.

Cadillac. A giveaway …
Egregiousness. 6. … but only for a couple of weeks. Cadillac likely got much more out of its logo appearing behind Tony’s head each time he drove his SUV last season.

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