Long-running game show Wheel of Fortune is a television institution. It's also a cash cow, especially for advertisers who target older demographics. Maybe that's why Time Inc. set up a multiplatform ad deal between People and WoF:

[It] encompasses print ads, online advertising and exposure within the show itself over a six-week period and celebrates "Wheel's" 25th anniversary. The advertisers involved include Kraft Foods' Maxwell House, Sony Corp.'s Sony Card, and Procter & Gamble's Febreze and Dawn. Each marketer will serve as a provider of prizes on the show and sponsor a "double wedge," or a sign that takes up two slots on the wheel. [...] It's not the first time there's been product placement on "Wheel of Fortune," but it is the first time placement on the game show has been largely coordinated by a magazine publisher (Publicis Groupe's MediaVest was also involved). As such, it's just the latest example of magazines having to devise ad packages that involve things other than print pages -- and the dynamic turns them into brokers of a sort for new kinds of placement on TV and elsewhere. "This is the first time we have worked directly with a major publication," said Harry Friedman, executive producer of "Wheel." "People magazine brought in their advertisers as partners."

In a few less words: Advertise in People, get product placement on Wheel of Fortune for free. Go go Maxwell House.

(Image via Advertising Age)