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Ashton Kutcher: would you like plugs with that?

Ashton Kutcher's character used a laptop in Two and a Half Men, with logos for companies in which he has investments.

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CBS is distancing itself from a brouhaha that is emerging from an episode of Two and a Half Men in which Ashton Kutcher’s character used a laptop with logos for companies in which he has investments.

The laptop used by tech-billionaire ‘Walden Schmidt’ had logo stickers including Foursquare, Flipboard, Hipmunk, GroupMe and Chegg.

A statement from CBS says it was not part of any advertising transaction, saying “Our policy is to disclose such financial interests in a credit at the end of the broadcast.”

Only the Foursquare connection was noted by a disclaimer in the show’s credits. With some 20m viewers watching, it amounted to a very sizeable free plug.

It’s bizarre that on a network television show an actor would be using their own property as a sitcom prop, which kinda suggests it was intentional.

Earlier this month, Kutcher told attendees at a tech conference in San Francisco: “I put a bunch of . . . portfolio companies” on the laptop during taping.

He added: “I pulled it off for, like, one episode, and then CBS came in and told me they were going to have to take all the companies off the laptop because they didn’t want to promote companies they weren’t taking a piece of, or something.

“I don’t know exactly why.”

CBS is reportedly planning to blur out the stickers for all repeat viewings of the episode.

Meanwhile there may be more personal hurdles ahead with US gossip sites speculating that Kutcher’s marriage with Demi Moore is in trouble. Over to them…..

Source: Washington Post

9 Responses

  1. @Matt – Couldn’t have said it better. This was the first time I ever stopped watching a first run episode of 2 1/2 men. I won’t be going back. Absolutey unfunny rubbish.

    Charlie, Please come back!!!

  2. really it doesn’t matter as this was the last episode I’ll be watching as it sucked balls, big Charlie Sheen sized hairy balls. The laugh track was laughing at nothing and the jokes didn’t land as my brian was trying to work out why kelso was a billionaire and still dumb as a sack full of hammers.

  4. I dont see that its that much of a problem, the adverstisers should have thought of that first. Oh wait we would have been critising CBS and Warner Bros for that too. You just cant win, get over it everyone this is the 21st centurey and capitalism and consumerism is inbedded.

  5. I didn’t even noticed when I saw the episode.

    The thing that irks me more is that almost every show and movie use Apple computers on screen (including this scene it appears) yet always go to lengths to cover the logo because Apple refuse to pay for the plug. I find that so rude..

  7. I can see their POV, and I’m sure the advertisers who paid big money on CBS wouldn’t like it. Personally I thought they were just covering the Apple logo as the often do on shows not sponsored but Apple. Also Ashton was holding onto his iPhone4 pretty tight as not to show what it was.

    Dumb thing is most viewers would not even notice or care but now CBS has made this fuss I’m sure many will now be checking them out.

  8. I don’t see what the big deal is. Apart from Foursquare and Chegg, many people wouldn’t even recognise what the logos were. Only other one I recognise there is Flipboard.

    Still, business is business I guess. Shame they couldn’t just let Kutcher get away with it though. It seemed perfectly harmless.

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