Product Placement in Workaholics

In last week’s episode of Comedy Central’s sitcom “Workaholics,’ the guys competed in a TelAmeriCorp basketball tournament to win a chance to borrow the company car and drive to Reno for a night. The episode titled, “The One Where the Guys Play Basketball and Do the Friends Title Thing” was first aired on April 2, 2014. The scene opens with the guys (Anders, Blake, and Adam) arriving to work and interrupting a basketball game in the middle of the parking lot. The boss, Alice, tells the boys that the telemarketing company they work for (TelAmeriCorp) is doing a three on three basketball tournament to promote good health. The winners of the tournament get to borrow the company car and go to Reno for a night. During this scene, it’s noticeable that the type of basketball being played with is a Spalding ball. Throughout the rest of the show, it is never directly talked about being a “Spalding” ball or even held in a way that you read again besides that one time in the beginning, so I would not call this an example of product placement. I believe that it was just the way the ball happened to turned at one point that made it brand readable. Another example of what may or may not be product placement seen in the first scene is the fact that the company car is a Dodge Dart. The guys go crazy over the fact that it is a Dodge Dart. Adam says that he’s asking his parents for a Dodge Dart for Christmas and starts humping the car. This may not be a direct case of product placement, but they not only show the Dodge Dart, the mention it frequently as well. Personally, I think the Dodge Dart is a nice car, but it is not really, truly anything to get that excited about. Also, seeing how “Workaholics” is a comedy show, they get excited over things with a sometimes, mocking sense. The also mention Ander’s car as “the Volvo,” which isn’t too specific because it is just an old Volvo. This is not a case of product placement; it’s more of just a quick brand mention.

During another scene while the guys are collaborating ways to win the tournament, Blake is holding up and drinking out of a “Hardee’s” fast food cup. He never mentions the Hardee’s fast food chain during the scene though.

Adam gets the idea to inject steroids as a way to win the tournament, while Anders decides to focus on the competition. One the competing team’s members, Lynette, used to be a women’s basketball pro who almost made it onto the Olympic team. Lynette has a little bit of a temper, so Anders comes up with the idea to say something to make her angry and get her to punch him in the stomach. He tapes an iPad to his stomach and tells Blake that she’ll be sure to break her hand because iPad’s are made with “helicopter windshields.” Here, he not only mentions the durability of an iPad, but he also displays it on the show (taped to his chest). This is the only time that the iPad is mentioned, and it is not even a specific example of which generation iPad it is. They don’t really talk about it, except when he says about how durable it is. I wouldn't necessarily call this product placement, but it definitely gave the iPad a more humorous use. By the way, Lynette ending up punching Anders in the face instead of the gut, which still broke her hand. So Ander’s plan worked and the opposing team was left without their star athlete.

During one of the final scenes, which occurs at the TelAmeriCorp basketball tournament in the TelAmeriCorp warehouse, shows the three on three teams getting ready for the game. Blake decided to leave the team and Adam was taken to the hospital for overdosing on “steroids” (which actually turned out to be PCP and energy drinks), so that left Anders alone to create a make-shift team with their drug dealer friend Karl and one of Karl’s friends who is good at basketball. While the group is strategizing, they’re huddled in a corner of the warehouse where boxes of Dyson Ball vacuum cleaners and boxes of Oxy Clean are stacked.  They never once mention the boxes or the brands, so I don’t think this was a case of product placement. I’m not too certain that any products besides the Dodge Dart could be considered product placement because the branded items are either never mentioned or just made fun of.

In the end, Ander’s team won the basketball tournament and the three guys drove off to Reno in the Dodge Dart after stealing Adam from the hospital.