Lidl, AMI, Samsung, Jacquemus, Vestiaire Collective, LVMH, Google: the latest season of Netflix’s hit series “Emily in Paris” has taken the integration of brands on screen to a new level, propelling product placement, even more than characters, to the heart of the plot.
For example, the platform has partnered with Google to allow, via its Lens tool, to photograph one’s screen and be redirected to the web page that sells any of the clothes or accessories worn by the protagonists. SEO is skyrocketing and commissions are pouring in for “this form of engagement that is reaching a new level,” Netflix responds in a press release.
In a dizzying mise en abyme, these commercial integrations follow the character’s ambitions.
Emily Cooper is thus conveniently tasked in her fictional luxury marketing agency “Savoir” with inventing innovative partnerships for all sorts of very real brands.
In France, the regulations in force on product placement and clandestine advertising prohibit these practices in television production. But nothing applies to the content of the platforms.
“This way of working is new for us French, but it is common in American markets where brands are integrated very early on, from the writing of the script, and where advertisers commit to very significant amounts,” Jean Dominique Bourgeois, director of the French agency specializing in product placement, Place to Be Media, explained to AFP.
“With a budget of between 500,000 and one million euros for a scripted placement, it’s a good deal for brands that would have to spend much more for a multi-country campaign,” explains the expert, whose agency developed the partnership between Emily and McDonald’s in season 3 and placed three other clients in season 4.
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– New customers –
Second-hand luxury fashion platform Vestiaire Collective has offered itself a role for a few minutes when a broke Mindy turns to its service, filmed in detail, to sell off her designer wardrobe.
Questioned by AFP, the French company did not give the amount of this operation but said it had targeted “the notoriety of its brand”, in particular “development on the American market, which today represents 20% of sales”.
The fashion company, which also offers 900 styles inspired by Emily’s closet, says it has seen an “increase” in new customers, both buyers and sellers.
Emily’s outfits, more and more improbable from season to season, are selling. From season 1, the public had kept the Kangol bob, buried since 1998. In season 2, there was the avalanche of chick yellow looks, right down to the beret. Season 4 has already given a striped jumpsuit worn at the masked ball and a blue fur hat worn by Mindy.
– “Make the eyes bleed” –
The series’ costume designer, Marilyn Fitoussi, who claims to “make eyes bleed” with her bold clothing choices, has made the American’s wardrobe a character in its own right.
“I am regularly contacted by brands that have a slight drop in visibility or that are looking to reach a younger and different clientele,” she confirms to the economic newspaper Les Échos.
“I’m not paid by the brands and I don’t want to be,” says the costume designer, recalling that for season 1, due to lack of budget, she had dressed Emily entirely in second-hand and vintage clothing.
Since then, each outfit has been dissected by as many fashion magazines as during a fashion show. The visibility for an LV logo on a belt buckle or for the brand chosen for the heroine’s jogging is immediate and seems, even in the chosen shots, calculated.
“Watching the series gives the unsettling impression of wandering in the middle of a huge shopping mall,” comments GQ journalist Adam Sanchez.
The culture and cinema specialist notes that this practice “has grown in a crazy way” in the 4th season, with four product placements in the first minutes of the first episode. And the spectators, he assures AFP, know “what to expect”. And they ask for more.
“It’s a particular viewing experience. They don’t come so much for the plot, which is minimal, but for what Emily consumes and wears,” he sums up.
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