Product placement false alarm

Alex Ricciuti :: 28 March 2006 :: Filed under SUV, Porsche, Porsche Cayenne, Europe & UK, US,

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Porsche Cayenne featured in Sopranos episode just part of the story

Blatant product placement? Metaphorical use of the motor car as social commentary? Or just a TV show about a fat, insecure, homicidal maniac who bought his wife a new car? In the recent season opener of the Sopranos, mafia family patriarch Tony Soprano wheeled out a new Porsche Cayenne Turbo for his wife Carmela. Cue condescending finger-wagging for shameful product placement.

But it turns out to be…well, just shameful. Apparently, it was all in the original script. The Porsche was simply loaned to the production staff. No money was paid for the plug.

But there’s more to this story than that. What Tony Soprano drives on the show is no casual prop. It’s meant to characterise the conspicuous consumption and suburban blandness that the show is attempting to satirize. At least, that’s what we disgruntled critics are reading into it.

At first, Soprano drove a Chevy Suburban, emphasizing his stature as the proverbial clueless, suburban dad. Then Tony traded up for a Cadillac Escalade. Still an SUV but now a Cadillac, like gangters are supposed to drive. Get it? Of course, the Escalade is emblematic of the show. A clever juxtaposition of two tired old conventions - the suburban satire and the mafia saga. But wait, are we suggesting that the Escalade is a parody of itself? Sure, why not?

Although SUV sales have not entirely crumbled,  ‘sport-utes’ are increasingly dated, tired and, dare we say, just uncool in the US these days. So when America’s favorite criminal suburbanite buys his wife a Porsche SUV, he’s more the out of touch, decadent gangster than status seeking middle-class male. Tony shoulda boughta Boxster.

Oh, and Tony gets shot at the end of the episode. Perhaps more evidence that Americans really are turning against SUV drivers. Here’s hoping…

Linkage:
Chicago Tribune (sub required)