abc disney does exactly what the hell they want & guess what??? there is nothing we can do about but complain…………….

I found it typical and heavy-handed (…as most synergy between Disney/ABC/ESPN usually is!) I worked for them for two miserable yrs, so I know the value they place on cross-over synergy; sometimes it can be successful, and other times, it can appear so forced it takes you out of the action and backfires.

I seem to remember P&G pulled this crap with both ATWT and GL toward the end of their runs, prominently placing their Dawn, Bounty, Pantene, Pringles, etc. front-and-center (…and even having the camera close-in on the product!) I felt so manipulated, I swore off P&G products for about a year, esp. after having the characters use the tag-lines “Cut the grease” and “Quicker-picker-upper” into their dialogue. It broke the fourth wall along with my respect for the brand!

When has Disney NOT used its properties to promote synergy? GMA is a 2 hour daily Disney movie and television promotion. It’s sickening.

I was bored and didnt pay attention to it that much but it doesnt bother me one way or the other!

Well it distracted from the story and I turned GH off, so I’m going to say that it wasn’t good for GH or ESPN

was not a fan of it. the dialogue was weird. this tells me that the network has been dictating GH creative. I think one of the reasons the quality of GH has gone down is were seeing ABC’s vision instead of the GH showrunners. Varni vision. with GH’s ratings being down and demos dismal,this is not gonna help. I saw all the backlash the episode got on social media. There are lots of problems with GH,and I’ve noticed very little change under the new writers. That tells me that Ron Carlivarti wasn’t the only problem. There’s too many new characters that I don’t care about. The Jason reveal was a dud. Now the show is really boring. After Jason Thompson leaves,GH could be looking at record low ratings. Y&R now has GH’s two most popular actors that drove story for years.

YR did same for Thursday Football

I love my DVR. It allows me to fast forward through stupid scenes, including that total non-believable scene between Dante and Valerie, arguing over the teams before hitting the sheets. Whatever!

I hate Disney.

I had the misfortune of catching this. It was the weirdest dialogue I’ve ever heard on a soap, and it was pathetically shameless, forced cross promotion. I realize that both are Disney-owned properties. But come on, it’s two audiences that could not be any more different.

I highly doubt that there is any kind of sizable crossover between the audience/demographics that watches a daytime soap opera vs. the audience that watches college football or NFL games. Downright lame job by ABC/ESPN/Disney, and yet another example of how far GH has fallen. What’s next, the shills of Port Charles making hardwood references during a mob shooting to alert us to the NBA Finals, in June on ABC?

As with most things on TV, it could have been alright if it had been written well. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
I’ll keep holding my breath waiting for ABC to promote GH during its prime time lineup–the way NBC has with Days of Our Lives for years now!

I did notice the heavy handed promotion. Funny. ABC did not seem to think there was much audience for its messages when it cancelled AMC and OLTL.

I thought it was kind of a goofy drinking game. You know, have a shot every time you hear “college football playoff”…

Since I’m more of a baseball fan and don’t follow football unless it’s Ohio State, I didn’t even notice. But if this is the worse ABC can do in promoting what seems America’s sport’s obsession, just this once, I can live with it. It still seems a bit of a stretch to promote football on a soap. Wish the trade off would be to bring back OLTL or AMC. Just kidding, sorta.

I noticed it and laughed. What I dont understand is this. Most of us DVR our soaps. We dont watch commercials. Why doesnt the soaps do more product placement? I dont mind it. If Coca Cola is a sponsor, why not have Sam drinking a Coke at Kellys? We are not watching the commercials so why not put the products in the show? NO, dont be so obvious and mention the product seven times, just be normal. Its odd to see a character grab a soda out of the fridge and it just says COLA on the can. Its a COKE! Millions drink it!

I remember back in the day when Disney first acquired ABC and every family oriented sitcom had to go to Disneyland in their episodes. This is not the first time GH has done vulgar product placements… Characters going to the movies, and guess what movie posters were prominently displayed? You guessed it… Disney movies!

Being from Canada I didn’t get the reference– didn’t even realize it was a real thing — just thought it was just part of the show– LOL. Now if they were talking about the new Star Wars movie– I would have caught that cross promotion.

It reminded of that time, I think it was the National Orange Council, or whatever the hell the group was called, did a product placement on GH, and all of a sudden every character had to drink orange juice that day, and tell us how great and healthy it was, lol.

It’s cheesy and silly, and one of those things you roll your eyes at, but it doesn’t bother me, or make me not want to watch the show. If ABC doing product placements from advertisers, or advertising their own stuff on the show allows GH to stay on the air, I say do what you gotta do.

I didn’t mind the mention of the playoff as much as the generic “Yay my team won” or Go “my team” that was kind of funny.

It was AWFUL. Talk about stilted and obvious. Blatant, in your face. Actors should go to union about collecting fees for doing commercials too. It was an AD. This was a long way from a subtle product placement. And it was boring to watch too. Surprised it didn’t make the Soup as well. Or did it?

If people are actually bothered by a mention of a college football playoff game, even if overdone, then people are taking GH and TV way too serious.

sort of like the Truman show wasn’t it??

awkward product placements… but if it keeps the soaps alive, why not…

– after all they are ‘soap operas’ – originally created to sell soap!!!!!

They’ve done this before with awkward product placements. I can remember a very stupid scene in OLTL a few years ago where Natalie touts the ease of do-it-yourself tax preparation program. Had nothing to do with anything going on plot wise. And GH has hawked Hershey chocolates during Valentine’s Day. The Shriners Hospital plugs were a little overdone too during Spencer’s burn treatments, but at least that was for charity! What can we do but cringe? I guess the money they get from the product placements helps the soaps pay for themselves.

I wish that the writers could learn how to do product placement right. In this case it needed to be characters who had in the past actually showed they gave a hoot about sports at all other wise it comes of odd and forced. Like some one else said when OLTL had Natalie Buchanan an heiress doing her own taxes via turbo tax it partly rang false because someone with that much money wouldn’t be doing their own taxes. Using one of the McBain boys or Williamson sisters would have seemed more real. Integrating the playoffs on GH without it being odd would have been hard because they barely mention NY sports teams much less college teams. If writers know ahead of time that they are going to be forced to mention something they need to lay the ground work in slowly. Have a funny scene where Michael and Jason try to teach Monica about football and have Alice come in knowing everything because with Alice’s wrestling background she would. Let Bobbie and Valorie talk about how Pat loved sports and give Val positive screen time with a family member who’s husband she doesn’t want to screw.

I didn’t even notice. During football season, everywhere you go, you will hear people talking playoffs, bowls and their favorite teams I’m not sports fan, so I just turn it off
I’m glad to see Robin and Patrick leaving but will miss Emma. Now if they would get rid of Valerie, the new commissioner, Dylan Q. (Sp) Franco, and a few others,

I guess I don’t know what the big deal is over the football thing. Not sure it would have even been an issue had it not been made into an issue. As it is, there is product placement in all kinds of shows and movies. I don’t like it, or dislike it, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the story. And quite frankly, football viewing and chatter in a bar probably isn’t that unusual.

It was absolutely ridiculous the amount of times it was mentioned, since there was no other mention of football by any character on GH during the year. As someone mentioned ESPN does what they want even if it has no place on a soap opera.