#why was the subway product placement so blatant

[a-demonic-duck-of-some-sort]

I am the last living Chuck enjoyer. The part of my brain that should store important information like recipes or how to drive stick is instead filled to the brim with hot takes and lore tidbits about two-time Emmy Award winning spy thriller/workplace sitcom Chuck starring Zachary Levi

[khiphop-discussions]

Do you think that the product placement and ads in smtm this year were more frequent and blatant? Or did I just not notice them as much before

The subway ones were kinda on the nose LOL but I feel like subway is on the nose in EVERY season. It seems like they have been supplying the sandwiches on every season so that they can eat. I remember in season 6(?) when KillahGramz rapped his order and I think it was Hongwon (not sure) who was like "Wow, you really want the brand deal" or something similar to that LOL. Then this season Team Graynoma was acting like the sandwiches were the best thing they ever tasted. Like dude...it's fucking subway LOL

But I don't think I can remember that many of other ones (besides Sprite but the Sprite was paired with the Subway so of course it was memorable).

I remember Kakao Pay from other seasons. But I ALSO think that was during a Subway scene as well lol

To me it was obvious they were advertising that hotel as well cause otherwise why randomly give the winner a stay in the hotel? Also, wasn't that the same hotel that we saw them eating at/talking on one of the episodes (can't remember but it may have been ep9 or 10?).

They are ALWAYS advertising for whatever company sponsors the car. This time it was mini cooper.

They also collabed with UFC this season as well. They made some hats. I feel like that was a SUPER random collab lol.

But SMTM did give out A BUNCH of prizes this season ($300K worth) compared to them usually giving out $100K of money and a car (probably worth less than $100K). Also, the judging panel DID look pretty damn expensive (Mino AND Gray, Yumdda who's business saavy so I feel like he asked for a lot lol, Code Kunst, Gaeko, and Zion.T probably get paid more because they are return judges same with Gray. Slom and Toil probably were the cheapest but honestly I still see them being pretty expensive). They also redesigned the HELL out of the set for round 2. All that AI/Virtual Reality/whatever the hell it was, means they had to hire more people to do that.

Oh, it also seems like maybe they may have been advertising that technology/company who makes it as well. Didn't they spend a weird amount of time having the judges talk about it as well as mention exactly what it was and who did it? That was probably an ad because they don't tell us what company makes literally anything else on the show (like the chains, fire pit, the other stage designs for the other rounds [diss battle, the jail cells for ep.5, the 1v1 battle stage for ep.3], etc. They kinda just go "oh this is cruel" for a few seconds and then move on) So maybe they got the set design for free for the advertisement if it really was an ad.

So yeah, it does seem like it was more of them. But it makes sense given how much money it seems like they spent.