[quote name=\'Steve Gavazzi\' post=\'214990\' date=\'May 5 2009, 06:37 PM\']Really? I haven't noticed any difference, and last I heard (which was just a couple weeks ago), they're still shelling out money hand over fist on the designer fashions and Apple electronics that Drew insists on giving away.
[/quote]I think Nesquik Pure Silk and Gorton's have become fairly frequent sponsors recently. On the prize side, it seems that they're definitely not offering as many appliances as before, and they were (and are) rarely sponsored. In general, the electronics are still unsponsored, which comes as a big surprise to me. Both sectors have a dozen brands, and I thought one of them might find a few plugs worthwhile.
I was pretty sure that the Apple love was coming from Drew's general direction. He was gushing about the nearby Apple Store early on his first year. I'm more surprised to hear that the fashions were started by him. That seemed like a demo play to me, so I was thinking CBS had more to do with that decision. As a bit of an aside, have you noticed that Drew's been fawning over more of the prizes in general? So far he's said that he owns a MINI, those expensive headphones and a couple other prizes when they've been offered. He also mentions it whenever they offer a trip to someplace he's been, and a recent trip made me think it was made somewhat on the fly. My point is, how much of the current prize warehouse now consists of sponsored prizes rather than Drew's Favorite Things? Are they rejecting sponsorships of "uncool" brands or products in the belief that paying more for cooler prizes will garner higher ratings or more desirable demos.
Back to CBS's fiddlings, am I the only one surprised they didn't decide to extend Bold and Beautiful and give half an hour back to affiliates? Seemed like the path of least resistance to me.
