Everything on Bravo is Sponsored
And we need to talk about it...
The first time (to my knowledge) that we ever saw an in-show advertisement on Bravo was back in RHONY season 11. We all remember where we were when Dorinda and Sonja sat down in a random movie theater lobby, talking about Rebel Wilson & Anne Hathaway.
Everyone was so deeply confused. What was happening? Why were they unorganically discussing a movie that no one would probably ever see? It was so awkward, so inauthentic, it rubbed everyone the wrong way.
From that point on, in-show ads were few and far between. Occasionally one might pop up, but nothing sticks out in my head. I don’t know if you could count the countless Loverboys on screen during Summer House or a quick pan to Sewing Down South on Southern Charm, but actual ads within the middle of our shows, that wasn’t happening.
Until this year.
I’m not sure if Bravo is strapped for cash, if NBCUniversal is trying out something different but the overt advertisements in the middle of all these shows is insane.
Let’s start off with Salt Lake City; in one of the first episodes, we get a blatant Wendy’s trip with Lisa, Heather and I want to say Angie or Bronwyn. Lisa picks the ladies up, they go to Wendy’s and discuss their orders. Since season 1, we’ve seen Lisa Barlow go to various drive-thrus and discuss her love of Taco Bell, but it was never as blatant as this was. It felt off, it felt less normal. My antenas perked up because of Lisa’s ongoing partnership with the fast food chain (who has the best chicken nuggets around, fight me), which I’m all for…just maybe not in an episode.
Sure enough, during the end credits, there was a disclosure that Lisa Barlow has a paid partnership with Wendys. During the same episode, there was a disclosure that the new furniture that Whitney & Justin’s discussed/showed during their new house tour was sponsored.*
Granted, that’s not necessarily Bravo getting a sponsorship, but it was very overt advertising that in the past, has been reserved for Housewives social media accounts.
Then, we had that ridiculous trip to Milwaukee which of course was fun, but random. The Housewives were hyping it up too much; we even had Mary on board for it which felt nuts. They were referencing key Milwaukee landmarks (is that a thing?) like the Harley Davidson museum, breweries & Laverne & Shirley. It felt suspicious and sure enough, during the end credits it said parts of the episode were sponsored by the Milwaukee tourism council/committee or some other organization of a similar name.
If we make our way over to the East Coast, Real Housewives of Potomac’s first trip of the season to Lake Norman was also sponsored, per the credits. Sure, Mia was playing it off like it was a meaningful place to her (which I’m sure it was) but it seemed too out of place, too random and too focused on Lake Norman as a location
This got me thinking…have these things been sponsored in the past? I think we all assumed that the hotels were getting a cut of the pie which is fine — as they should! The show is bringing attention these locations and are allowing these notorious disruptive ladies to film there so it makes sense.
It made me go back and look at last season’s credits; the Potomac trip to Austin was ‘sponsored’ but just the hotel was named. Beverly Hills’ trip to Vegas was credit as a sponsorship, but Vegas doesn’t feel as random of a place when compared to Milwaukee, especially since the RHOBH cast has been to Vegas dozens of times over the years.
Taking a break from Housewives trips, we make our way further up the East Coast to New York (which is a hot bed of controversy this season) and we had a good old fashioned movie/brand tie in, and one that really made sense. A few episodes ago, Sai took her daughter London to Rebecca Minkoff’s show room, where the handbag designer showed off her new collaboration with the Wicked movie for a line of handbags. Sai got to take a handbag home & she seemed so excited.
That advertisement actually worked on me because I immediately went to the Rebecca Minkoff website to see her new bags. I didn’t buy one but added a few to my wishlist.
While sponsorships have obviously been happening for a long time, why do these seasons of Housewives feel so overtly obvious in the way they’re depicting them? Is it because the trips feel random? They’re places that we’re not used to seeing the Wives go…or they’re being too overly excited & talkative about the hotel, city, etc. If you were playing a drinking game with the amount of times the Salt Lake City ladies said the words “Milwaukee”, you would’ve blacked out.
I don’t think this will be the end of the sponsorships but I do think that Bravo needs to get a little more creative with how overt they are becoming.