Does Product Placement Work?

A plane has been seen flying by, towing yet another banner advertisement – a very simple design, all black, with two words in white: “Avion Tequila.”

Those familiar with the hit HBO series Entourage know that Avion Tequila has been playing a major role in this season’s story line. This then prompts the question: “Is this tequila for real or is it some sort of weird promo for the show?” Upon a quick online search, this was the answer that was found:

Avion Tequila was launched this summer in New York and L.A. by Marquis Jet founder Kenny Dichter (which makes sense since Avion means "Airplane" in Spanish). Kenny and Entourage creator, Doug Ellin, met each other in elementary school 35 years ago in Merrick, NY. The cost for all this publicity and buzz: $0. Since HBO is an advertising-free channel, Elin could not charge for product placement, which also meant Dichter had no control of how the product was used in the show.

Dichter is certainly getting a ton of publicity, but does the consumer know it’s an actual product? As the saying goes, any publicity is good publicity; especially since launching a new liquor can end up costing upwards of $25-50 million in advertising. Breaking into the high-end world of premium liquor is certainly tough – often being backed by musicians, actors and other celebrities. The Entourage demo is certainly the right platform to introduce this brand (18-34 male), so it will be interesting to see if Avion takes off.