During last night’s (Tue 7 Jan) debut of The Taste – Channel 4’s blind tasting cookery format fronted by Nigella Lawson and fellow judges Anthony Bourdain and Ludo Lefebvre – an array of Panasonic products were featured.

These were (brace yourselves): Panasonic’s induction hob with new Opti-Sensor technology, Panasonic’s economic ‘A’ energy-rated built-in oven, and Panasonic’s American style ‘A++’ energy-efficient refrigerator.

So after watching the show you had a sudden urge to buy a Panasonic product, now you know why – Product placement, or PP for short, was to blame.
 

It didn’t end with The Taste however; if you stayed to the end of Celebrity Big Brother over on Channel 5, you might have noticed in the closing credits that there isn’t just one Product placement partnership credited, but seven, consisting of Aquafresh, Dyson, L’Oréal, Maximuscle, Ribena, Weetabix, and Zeo.

But have you ever wondered how programme makers go about striking PP deals in the first place? Or how they behave differently in film and TV? Then this guide has all the answers:

A GUIDE TO PRODUCT PLACEMENT

Further details on the above shows – such as producer, director and PM credits – can be found on Production Intelligence, our online database of advance and archive productions.