October 27, 2008

During last night’s episode of Entourage an extra walked into the frame behind and to the left of Kevin Connolly (Eric Murphy) and Kevin Dillon (Johnny Drama) wearing a Gears of War T-shirt (hit the jump to view the larger pic). With the extra walking in and out of the picture in two seconds, the shirt doesn’t get as much screen time as the average Budweiser bottle gets per episode. But, given the coming release date and Microsoft’s influencer program that put out the limited edition GTA IV Xbox and threw a party for Gears of War 2 at Mr. Cartoon’s LA tattoo shop, it’s likely that the t-shirt was a paid placement.

As of now neither Epic or Microsoft have responded to emails for confirmation. But I’ll keep you posted. Either way, it’s a good look for Microsoft, Epic and the game. For one, a subtle advertisement on Entourage strikes a nice counterpoint to the “bigger, better, more bad ass” marketing program. If it was just an extra with a thing for Cogs then Cliff Bleszinski can rest easy knowing that he’s probably one step closer to the media saturation level that ends with a Saturday Night Live skit.

UPDATE: Epic’s PR Director Dana Cowley got back to me stating that the shirt was not a paid placement. She indicated that Microsoft thinks the shirt appearing in the show was just a coincidence.