An Extended Scene from 'Fringe' -- Oh Wait, It's a Ford Taurus Commercial

Imagine my excitement when during the 'Fringe' finale, they ran a promo about an extended scene found on the show's official site. I'll take whatever I can get to tide me over until season 3 premieres.

I raced over there to get my fix, but alas, it wasn't much of an extended scene at all -- it featured Walternate and Peter having a conversation as they sped down an alt-universe road in a peppy little car.

And as a bonus, we got the little Easter egg of Walternate fiddling with the car's media center as the two men discussed the song that was playing: 'Hovercraft Mother' by Violet Sedan Chair, a fake band from the Wired Magazine that J.J. Abrams guest edited.

(FYI, the liner notes on the band's album 'Seven Suns' listed a missing 11th song; the track is rumored to produce hallucinatory effects when played on multiple turntables.)

Walternate noted that his favorite album of the band's was their third, to which Peter replied that they'd only made one album in the other universe.

Fine, that's all fun and good, but let's face it, the extended scene was mainly a Ford Taurus commercial. I really do understand how it all works. These advertising partners are valuable commodities. They keep the show running and, hey, if Walternate and Peter have to be in a car, it might as well be a Ford Taurus, right?

But it made me think of advertising partnerships that worked on other shows. One that springs to mind is 'Parenthood.' Throughout the show's first season, we've seen actual commercials that almost seem like extras on a DVD set. A happy guy from Lowe's is telling us how they create the sets for the various characters' homes. It's actually pretty cool, like a little behind-the-scenes featurette. I wouldn't even mind seeing more of it.

They did something similar with Maybelline and other beauty products during the two seasons of 'Lipstick Jungle.'

These types of promos don't bother me, because they own up to the fact that they're a partnership and embrace it. But when you've got two main characters like Walternate and Peter in a car and the camera zeroes in on the Ford Taurus emblem and a close-up of Walternate's hand working the media center (look! it's cool, right?!), it cheapens the show.

Why not take us behind the scenes, like the other two shows I mentioned? Or even take things a step further and give us a tour of the Ford company in the alternate universe? Now that's promo I could wrap my head around.

What do you think? Are there certain types of promos and advertising that you like or don't like? Tell me in the comments below, and watch the extended scene from the 'Fringe' finale.



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