Top Chef Cheftestants Plunge Into Sponsorship Hell
I am actually starting to get a little excited about the start of Top Chef tonight. I have been seeing a lot of press, watching judges and old cheftestants on TV and in the news promoting themselves along with the new season. Oh, yes…and then there has been a lot of the promoting.
It seems that each season, Top Chef continues to increase its number of sponsors. You have Padma each show welcoming the cheftestants to their “Viking Kitchen” and mentioning what the winner will receive “sponsored by Glad and their family of products”. Well, it seems that Top Chef, its judges, cheftestants and yes, even its viewers are being propelled into a sponsorship abyss. A fiery pit of product placement and not-so subtle advertisement.
The sponsor list includes: Toyota, Verizon, Michelob, Glad and the Clorox Company. Wo, wait a minute…Clorox?? What? Are we going to watch the cheftestants bleach their way across the kitchen floor? Some bizarre ingredient maybe?? Well, it seems that Clorox owns products like KC Masterpiece, Kingsford Charcoal and Hidden Valley Ranch. Hmmm, I think I smell a BBQ challenge.
From Alex Weprin of B&C:
In addition, Clorox is launching a Web site, mealstogether.com, which will feature exclusive Top Chef Web content, and will include Top Chef branding on its supermarket packaging, so you can use Hidden Valley salad dressing, just like the people on TV!!!
Toyota will provide Highlanders (big SUVs) to drive the contestants around Chicago, because apparently when traveling in the city large trucks are preferable to eco-friendly rides. However, the winner of this season will get… a Toyota Corolla, possibly the cheapest car ever given away on a reality show.
Verizon will have boatloads of mobile content on its V-Cast service, and will sponsor the always popular Top Chef blogs on BravoTV.com—with one bombastic exception.—Michelob will sponsor Anthony Bourdain’s Top Chef blog, as well as the “fan favorite” competition.
Glad will also be returning as the sponsor of the $100,000 prize, so expect to see their plastic bags everywhere, and Food & Wine Magazine will remain a sponsor, allowing Gail Simmons to return as judge and giving the winner a cover spread.
I almost didn’t read anything past, “Michelob will sponsor Anthony Bourdain’s Top Chef blog.” I am trying to picture the man who, lives for his brew, hates all things commercial and frankly anything that is crap agreeing to his words being lovingly embraced by the arms of all things evil. Hmm…something says that the Bravo execs. maybe forgot the mention.
Top Chef Season 4 airs tonight at 10pm EST on Bravo.
3 opinions for Top Chef Cheftestants Plunge Into Sponsorship Hell
John Z
Mar 17, 2008 at 11:23 am
Clorox owns Glad.
Top Chef Casey Helps with Meals Together
Mar 19, 2008 at 7:14 am
[…] Chef has become a playground for sponsors. The Clorox Company owns several products that are going to be featured during the fourth season: […]
Top Chef Season 4: Boxed Lunches, Short Order Cooks and Restaurant Wars
May 22, 2008 at 4:43 pm
[…] are basically, what was that…oh, yeah….crap. There is also no sign of Bourdain and the blog that he was going to write during the run of the season, which Top Chef executives promoted. He must have become horrified […]
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