‘30 Rock’ rolls ads into story lines
Gail Schiller

NEW YORK—In the November 15 episode of NBC’s “30 Rock,” Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey, in their roles as Jack Donaghy and Liz Lemon, sang the praises of Verizon Wireless before Fey looked right into the camera and asked, “Can we have our money now?” At least in this case, art did indeed imitate life. Verizon said it handed over an integration fee to NBC, in addition to some marketing support, for the mini-commercial within one of the network’s hottest shows.
The scene in question featured Jack saying, “These Verizon Wireless phones are just so popular. I accidentally grabbed one belonging to an acquaintance.” Liz responded, “Well, sure that Verizon Wireless service is just unbeatable. If I saw a phone like that on TV, I would be like, ‘Where is my nearest retailer so I can get one?”’ She then broke the fourth wall and addressed the camera with the plea for cash.
“We talk with NBC on a consistent basis about opportunities,” said Lou Rossi, director of media and sponsorships at Verizon Wireless. “We had engaged them to think about some ways we could help increase our presence in the marketplace, and they came back to us with the ‘30 Rock’-specific opportunity.”
Rossi declined to disclose how much Verizon paid for the “30 Rock” integration but said that in addition to fees, it provided marketing support for the show with a co-branded ad in Maxim magazine and promotional content on VerizonWireless.com. “We want an integration to be as organic and natural to a show as it can be,” he said. “Certainly with the ‘30 Rock’ humour and writing, this type of integration just works well for them and for Verizon Wireless as well.” NBC declined comment on the financial terms of the deal. It’s not the first time the irreverent NBC comedy has made a joke of the increasingly common practice of product integration while at the same time plugging a network advertiser.