Reading this Ankler feature takes 11 minutes.
Through a winding road landscape reminiscent of a shopping street in a Parisian arrondissement, guests attending the premiere of Netflix’s fourth season in Los Angeles Emily in Paris last month we were surprised. Sure, the on-demand crepe station was a nice touch (Happy crepe day! smashed the packaging they were served in), as well as replicas of Emily’s office and L’Esprit de Gigi, Gabriel’s restaurant (Lucas Bravo).
Then things got weird. Mannequins carrying items featured in the show were strategically placed along the path, and nearby there was a “street sign” that encouraged visitors to “Shop with Google.” For example, if you opened the Google app on your phone and used the AI-powered, camera-based search product Lens, you could see where you could find the lime green mules worn by Mindy in the first scene of the new season (Ashley Park) by Italian designer Francesca Bellavita ($650). Or shoes that look very similar to the original and cost much less.
Along the way, a photographer offered people a Polaroid photo with the distinctive white frame that read “Shopping with Google + Emily in Paris.”
What started as a Netflix premiere somehow evolved into a brand activation for Google’s visual search and shopping tool.
A week later, when the first part of the fourth season appeared on Netflix, Google’s takeover continued at the ad level. Emily in Paris has now been brought to you by Google. An ad with Emily herself, Lily Collinsaired and shows her shopping for new shoes via Google Lens after making the ultimate faux pas: wearing the same shoes as everyone else.
Stop a show and a new “pause indicator” prompts you to “take that look.”
Whose show is this anyway? When did Netflix become a TikTok store?
Three and a half seasons after the start of the second season of the fourth season – the series starts on September 12th – Emily in Paris is not only a real hit streaming franchise for Netflix, but the fantasy of every marketer: It’s hard to tell where the commercial ends and the show begins.
As a result, Emily has become a petri dish for the streaming giant to remake advertising and product placement in its own image, and definitive proof that the streaming platforms are now trying to disrupt another empire of the cable and broadcast world: the kind of coveted product integrations that drive huge ad buys.
“With the exception of Netflix, it is obvious that streaming is not as lucrative as the old method,” says Peter Naylorwho was vice president of ad sales at Netflix until his departure in July. “So everyone is trying to figure out how to make money faster.” Ironically, it is Netflix, with its already enormous profitability compared to its competitors, that is the fastest to chase advertising dollars.
