It had humble beginnings as a Netflix drama about a young American woman moving to Paris with big dreams of making a career in high-end fashion.
But now the hit show Emily In Paris has become big business itself – and is taking TV product placement to new levels, if the latest series is anything to go by.
The show’s highly anticipated fourth season was released in two parts on the streaming platform earlier this month.
Analysis by The Mail on Sunday found 37 brands are plugged throughout its ten episodes – from Starbucks coffee to high-end fashion houses Chanel, Dior, Hermes and Bulgari – and Netflix reportedly employs product placement as a way to generate revenue without compromising its business model of ad-free entertainment.
The platform has even teamed up with the Google Lens app this season to allow fans to instantly look up and buy items featured in the show by pointing their smartphone at the screen. Among the blizzard of brands in the latest series is car maker Renault, which gets a minute-long plug when a fictional advert is filmed for a new car.
The French Open tennis tournament, Roland Garros, has eight minutes of episode one dedicated to it, while Ami Paris, a luxury fashion brand, is wrapped up in the storyline. Netflix’s own regency drama, Bridgerton, is plugged in episode three, and there are regular references to social media apps TikTok and Instagram.
Le Monde newspaper features throughout the series, as does Eurovision, while Crazy Horse, an expensive Parisian cabaret restaurant known for its nude female dancers, has a whole episode dedicated to it. The programme also introduces a fictional perfume called Heartbreak in collaboration with French luxury house Baccarat. The perfume has now been made available for sale in real life – for €410 a bottle.
Luxury skincare firm Augustinus Bader appears in episode four. Its chief executive, Charles Rosier, said: ‘It was an organic storyline integration. We love the show and were excited when the producers reached out for us.’
Emily In Paris follows US marketing executive Emily Cooper, played by Lily Collins, 35, as she navigates life, love and her career in the French capital.
Previous seasons have seen sales surge for clothing and accessories worn on-screen.
Released in 2020, season one was streamed by 58 million households worldwide, according to Netflix, while season two was the most-watched Netflix show of 2022.
The first half of season four topped the global TV chart last week, with 19.9 million views in its first four days of streaming.
Paramount Pictures, which produces the show, and Netflix were approached for comment.
