Scranton 2010

I don’t know how much it costs to get your product mentioned on The Office.

That's because the going rate was censored from a document obtained under Freedom of Information. But it did reveal the cost of the British Columbia Olympic tourism campaign on NBC was $17.255 million.

The You Gotta Be Here campaign starred Michael J. Fox, Sarah McLachlan and Steve Nash. I revealed that it also included a product placement on The Office.

The Feb. 11 episode began with Michael Scott calling a Vancouver hotel to confirm a reservation for the Olympics. The Office also produced a web-exclusive video with a special song about Canada in general and B.C. in particular.

This is the new normal, folks. Because of digital video recorders, commercials are being skipped and advertisers’ money is being wasted. The only way to ensure bang for the buck is by being inside the content.