Admission: I'm kind of a t.v. head. I even enjoy sitcoms when they innovate or cleverly satirize. Unfortunately, the best at these can meet with premature ratings deaths (remember Flying Blind or Jake in Progress or Stacked?).

One sitcom recently earns marks for innovative advertising. NBC's "30 Rock" has gone beyond product placement to product integration---integrating ads into the story line and, more valuably to me, into the show's satire. Yahoo! news has the story, "30 Rock" rolls ads into story lines.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - 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.

[...]

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. In fall 2006, there was a similar spoof with Snapple in the episode "Jack-Tor," which featured Lemon and the show-within-a-show's other writers protesting a directive from General Electric and Donaghy to write product placement into the show, all while talking about how much they love Snapple. The dialogue included lines like "I only date guys who drink Snapple" and ended with Donaghy saying, "Yes, everyone loves Snapple. Lord knows I do." There was even a guy in a Snapple suit who walked out of the elevator asking for the human resources department.

Emphasis added to avoid confusion over this post header.

Great stuff. Got a favorite dead sitcom? Comments open.