Product Placement on Television

So there has been complaints of product placement in television shows. It came up a few days ago in a meme question and I’ve seen it mentioned somewhere else since then plus I’ve been thinking about it a bit since Friday. I’m not sure what the problem is? We see product placement in sports all the time, in the background, on the uniforms, sponsorships of the show and who knows what else. I’m not sure what it matters when the hosts are drinking Coca-Cola on American Idol or someone on a fiction show is eating some brand name candy. Someone is going to start drinking Coke because Paula drank it on TV? What about when someone famous is drinking it on an ad? I’m thinking I’m not going to be any more motivated to buy Red Zone deodorant just because I saw Clark Kent with some in his locker on Smallville a few weeks ago. Although the ad stuck in my head (so I guess it worked on some level), but that’s just because they paused on it a bit too long the few times they showed it (it was on a banner at the Smallville High football game too).