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Designated Survivor went heavy with the product placement this week

Christopher Hooton
Friday 28 April 2017 04:27 EDT
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Designated Survivor goes hard for product placement to viewers disbelief

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In Designated Survivor, an explosion kills the President and all members of his Cabinet except for a secretary in charge of housing. It's a pretty serious situation, but damn does the latest Ford Fusion look great as it rolls through the countryside!

The car was shoehorned into the latest episode, in what fans are calling "the most blatant product placement ever seen in a TV show".

Maggie Q's FBI agent character Hannah Wells capped off a serious conversation by whipping out her smartphone and firing up the 2017 Ford Fusion app, the car's engine starting as we're given close-ups of the dashboard and central console, Ford logo gleaming.

The vehicle looks impossible shiny given it's been driven through the dirt, in a scene that is way more egregious if you watch it in the context of the full episode.

"That product placement was so blatantly obvious that I was disturbed and lost attention for the rest of the episode," one viewer commented, with another adding "I almost spat out my coffee at how un-subtle and ridiculous this was" and a third declaring it: "necessary, poorly integrated, painful. "

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