Product placement for kitchen appliances is usually used in cooking shows (e.g. MasterChef or something similar), although we can sometimes see it in movies or TV shows as well. I have recently found one example of great product placement for KitchenAid pasta press in the TV show Master of None.
Master of None is Netflix’s show made by Aziz Ansari who also played the lead role. We follow Dev (Ansari), a 30-year-old actor in New York who has trouble making decisions.
The first season consists of 10 episodes and in the ninth episode called “Mornings” we saw Dev’s girlfriend Rachel moving in with Dev in his apartment. As a gift she brought him a pasta press, because Dev mentioned a few times before that he really loves eating pasta.
So Dev got a KitchenAid pasta press, but never used it. After a few months Rachel got a chance for a work promotion but that would require her to move to Chicago for six months. She decides to go to Chicago for the interview. Meanwhile Dev starts using a pasta press and discovers that he’s really great at making pasta.
Pasta making has a role in the last episode as well, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. Just watch the show, because it’s fantastic.
Recap
A successful product placement has to be integrated in the story so that it fits and KitchenAid pasta press achieved that easily. As I said Dev mentioned that he loves eating pasta and that fact created a perfect setting for KitchenAid’s integration. Rachel’s gift then became quite obvious.
We also have to realize that some people (maybe we should say a lot of people) leave home appliance gifts in a storage room, because they just don’t need them or don’t make an effort to start using them. Dev certainly falls in that category.
I have to admit that I really loved Master of None and I’m a fan of Aziz Ansari, but those facts didn’t influence my evaluation: KitchenAid’s pasta press product placement in Master of None was really really good. I’m thinking of buying one for myself.