Product placement

Product placement is a type of advertising where a company's products are integrated directly into a show such as Smallville.

Old Spice

Season Four

• Jinx - This episode was sponsored by Old Spice deodorant and contains obvious product placement, including in Clark's locker and banners at the championship game.

Sprint

Sprint phones have shown up on the show many times. Sprint has also sponsored several of the Chronicles.

Season Six

• Trespass - Lana's cellphone is a Sprint phone.
• Oliver Queen Chronicles - Sprint was the sponsor for The CW's mini-webisodes, "The Oliver Queen Chronicles," originally exclusively available to Sprint customers.

Season Seven

• Kara - Lois takes a picture of Kara's ship with her cellphone. Kara crushes the phone with her hand; a piece of the cellphone has the Sprint logo on it.
• Quest - Clark and Chloe figure out that a church they're looking for is located in Montreal. Chloe uses Clark's Sprint cellphone to find the exact address of the church.
• Kara and the Chronicles of Krypton - Sprint also sponsored these mini-episodes, and they were originally exclusively available to Sprint customers. Note that no actual products were in the episodes themselves.

Stride gum

Stride gum was central to the plot of Season Seven's Hero. The episode took place in a Stride gum factory, and Pete Ross got stretching powers while chewing Stride gum. Chloe Sullivan expresses surprise that the gum factory has already been closed, saying "maybe next time they won't let the flavor last quite so long." This is a reference to Stride's ad campaign, where its gum factories are shut down because it makes "ridiculously long lasting gum".

Stride Gum also appeared in the episodes Sleeper and Persona.

Stride gum also sponsored an online comic called Smallville: Visions. Stride gum had several prominent placements within the online comic.

Toyota

Chloe starts driving a Toyota Yaris in Season Six, while Clark drives a Toyota Tundra. Both are featured prominently in the episodes in which they appear. In the season six finale Phantom, Lois drives a Toyota Camry.

Toyota sponsored Justice & Doom, which prominently featured the Toyota brand.

Toyota also sponsored a flash drive contest tied to the episode Progeny.

Acuvue

Acuvue sponsored the episode, Vengeance. The Angel of Vengeance wears contacts when she isn't in her secret identity as glasses-wearing Andrea Rojas. When Chloe realizes this, she says, "Acuvue to the rescue."

Acuvue also sponsored a contest entitled, "ACUVUE/SMALLVILLE – REVEAL THE REAL YOU". The winner got a "3-day trip for 4 to the Smallville season finale party in Los Angeles, mid May, '06, incl airfare (if more than 145 miles), hotel (one room), and ground transfers. Value $4,999."

AOL

During Season Five, the AOL brand is clearly visible while Lex Luthor is emailing, IM’ing and videoconferencing with his assorted henchmen. The Project Mercury blog is also hosted on AOL.

Windows Seven Phone

In Season Ten's Patriot, Lois is seen using a Windows Seven Phone. Ironically, near the end of the episode, when Lois enters Watchtower for the first time, she disses the phone, saying Watchtower's satellite "officially trumps my cellphone".

Microsoft Windows

Windows appeares frequently through Watchtower scenes in Smallville, and appears to be the main operating system that functions all of it's computers. The logo is seen multiple times on Watchtowers monitors.

Dell

Dell notebooks are often seen in the series, e. g. used by the Luthors and Tess.

Notes

• Product placements have become especially important as Tivo and downloading technologies have enabled viewers to skip past traditional 30-second commercials. Viewers of the CW's shows are especially likely to use these technologies, as its viewers tend to be younger. This had made product placement especially important for Smallville, where its frequent usage has made it particularly controversial.
• The first official product placement took place over a six-episode arc in the second half of Season Two, according to Bruce Rosenblum, Warner Bros. executive vice president, television. The company that performed the product placement was anonymous, due to a confidentiality clause.
• Pete Ross was involved in so many product placements that fans of the show would call him "Product Placement Pete". In more recent seasons, this role seems to have been taken over by Chloe Sullivan.