Let’s just call it what it is: Product placement. Branded entertainment? Documercials? Infotainment? Whatever. It’s still product placement, just handled a little more deftly these days, (but not always). Last night, Colbert does his usual straight act on steroids routine and plugged away as Heifer International West African program director Elizabeth Bintliff took it in stride. Can’t find fault with it though because it’s for a good cause. Heifer is the latest to get some brand love outside of a commercial, even though they’ve been around since 1944.
They take various animals and give them to people in 50 countries who in turn use them for various agricultural and food-related purposes. They work with everything from worms for soil to cows for milk. Mooing it forward in a program called Passing the Gift, each person who receives free animals is obligated to then pass one of their own on when they can. Of course, not everyone agrees with the mission. Animal rights issues aside, if it was me though? I’m putting a url on the side of the Daisy. (Or their Twitter. Why not, it’s this year’s must-have!)
