On a recent episode of the hit TV crime show CSI: NY, Detective Danny Messer’s cell phone rang with a familiar tone. “Coldplay?” his partner asks. “Yeah,” says Messer. “It’s called talk — something my girlfriend’s really good at.”
The plug was then followed by more traditional ads for the ringtone during the commercial break. No money changed hands for the product placement or commercials, but revenue from ring tones sold during the one-week offer — at $2.50 a pop — was split evenly between CBS and EMI’s Capitol label. The Coldplay album, X&Y, went on to be a multi-platinum seller. Of course, celebrities have always sold stuff. But there is a huge difference between Catherine Zeta-Jones or Coldplay flogging mobile phones and counterculture heroes such as Dylan and De Niro selling out for bras and credit cards.
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