From Google and Samsung to LVMH, AMI, Jacquemus and even Lidl, brands galore take centre stage in the latest season of Netflix hit series "Emily in Paris", outshining its plot and characters, AFP reported.
The US streaming giant has teamed up with Google to redirect viewers, using its Lens tool, to a website selling every outfit worn by the protagonists simply by photographing the screen.
With clicks spiking, Netflix is cashing in on commissions and a "next-level kind of engagement", the firm said in a statement.
Emily Cooper, the series' ditzy American heroine who relocates to Paris from Chicago to work for fictional luxury marketing agency "Savoir", is conveniently tasked in the show with developing innovative partnerships for real brands.
Such practices are restricted by French law regulating product placement and surreptitious advertising in film and television productions -- but that legislation does not apply to streaming content.
"This way of working is new, for us French people, but it is common in American markets where brands are integrated very early on, from scriptwriting, and where advertisers put down significant amounts" of cash, Jean-Dominique Bourgeois, who heads a French agency dedicated to product placement, told AFP.
Bourgois, whose firm Place to Be Media developed the partnership between "Emily in Paris" and McDonald's in season three, says companies have budgets ranging from 500,000 to one million euros (between $550,850 and $1.1 million) for a "scripted placement".
"It's a good deal for brands that would spend a lot more for a multi-country campaign," he said.